Washington, D.C.-based startup Shifters has emerged with $10.2 million in seed funding to send autonomous ground robots into the most dangerous environments before human operators set foot in them. The round, led by Ace Capital Partners, brings the company's total raised to $15 million and aligns its expansion plans with a U.S. Department of War push toward AI-enabled, modular autonomy.
A 'Robots Go First' Doctrine For Ground Operations
Drones have transformed how military and security teams gather intelligence from the air, but Shifters argues that on the ground, dangerous reconnaissance still falls to people clearing rubble, tunnels and contaminated terrain. The company is building supervised autonomous robotic teams that one operator can direct intuitively, while the platforms adapt to complex environments and reduce human exposure before a situation escalates. CEO and co-founder Ofer Ballin said the first asset into a hostile environment should increasingly be a robot, not a person.
Investor Syndicate Spans U.S., Europe And Israel
Joining Ace Capital in the seed are Aurelius Capital Management, Corner Ventures, Arkin Capital, STEP World and Fresh Fund — a syndicate that mixes aerospace, defense and early-stage deep-tech expertise across three continents. Ace Capital managing partner Shimon Tsentsiper called the AI motion-control layer Shifters is building exactly the kind of capability that will define the next era of ground robotics. CTO Assaf Chaprak framed the challenge as dual hardware and software: enabling robotic teams to operate in demanding conditions while keeping human supervision simple enough to scale.
Modular Open Systems For Pentagon-Style Programs
Shifters is designing its stack around Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) principles, with robust APIs and partner support for mission-specific payload integration — the architecture U.S. defense buyers increasingly insist on. The company has already completed coordinated robotic entry and navigation demonstrations with defense and security stakeholders, and will use the new capital to expand its agentic AI capabilities, accelerate manufacturing readiness and grow its footprint in the U.S., Middle East and Europe.
The funding lands inside a broader robotics-funding sprint that has seen Mach Industries quadruple its valuation in a $300M Series C and Germany's ARX Robotics commit to a 5x increase in UGV output — all evidence that capital is rotating from defense software into the autonomous platforms that physically execute missions. Beyond defense, Shifters sees commercial uses in infrastructure inspections, agriculture, mining and search-and-rescue, mirroring how drone delivery players such as Matternet expanded from logistics into civil services.
Reporting based on coverage from GlobeNewswire and Defense Daily.