Australian defence technology startup Breaker has raised $9 million in Seed funding.
The raise was led by US VC Bessemer Venture Partners, with support from existing backer Main Sequence, which led 2025’s $2m pre-Seed nearly 12 months ago. The startup, which emerged out of the UNSW Founders Defence 10X program in 2023, now has a US HQ in Austin, Texas.
The new cash will be deployed on the development and adoption of the Sydney startup’s AI agent software.
Breaker’s platform lets military operators coordinate teams of up to 100 autonomous systems across air, land and sea with their voice.
Founders Matthew Buffa, Michael Irwin, and Vanja Videnovic, were former Anduril, Droneshield and Hargrave Technologies engineers.
Buffa, the co-CEO, said operator bottleneck is one of the Australian Defence Force’s most expensive capability gaps.
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“Today, autonomy still means one operator controlling one robot, with remote controls or laptops, which significantly limits the number of autonomous systems that can be deployed,” he said.
“With our tech, a single human operator simply talks to the fleet of autonomous systems over the radios they already carry. The onboard AI agent in turn responds with real-time, context-aware responses, translating operator’s intent into machine action. This allows operators to stay focused on their mission, whether driving a truck or flying a helicopter.”
Robotic orchestration
The effectiveness of drones as a military weapon has come to the fore in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While cheap drones as bombers, piloted by Ukraine soldiers, have been used to devastating effect against the Russia’s expense military machinery, it’s still a one-at-a-time battle.
Buffa says the next frontier is orchestration – how to manage and coordinate robotic teams at speed, at scale and under pressure.
“Breaker’s software changes the operator-to-robot ratio – turning small teams into force multipliers. Robots become genuine teammates that understand and deliver on the mission,” he said.
The startup’s software runs entirely onboard each robot, without needing cloud connectivity or external networks. That’s essential in what the military calls a “denied environment” – when communications are jammed or denied,. The Breaker agents continue operating autonomously, making mission-aligned decisions.
Bessemer partner David Cowan said Breaker’s on-robot agents will redefine how militaries deploy and manage autonomous systems.
“By enabling small teams to safely control large numbers of robots through intuitive, natural language interfaces, Breaker is tackling one of the hardest and most important problems in defence technology,” he said.
Armoured vehicle demo
Breaker’s AI agent software was recently installed in the mission systems of German manufacturer Rheinmetall’s Boxer armoured vehicle’s at the company Australian test facility. The Boxer is an Australian-made armoured 8×8 vehicle used by armies around the world.
Rheinmetall Australia’s Adam Henrichs said the project demonstrated how Breaker’s AI agent can be integrated at the tactical edge in complex warfighting environments.
“By integrating Breaker’s software into Boxer, operators were able to task an uncrewed aerial system for forward reconnaissance using simple, intent-based voice commands while continuing to operate the vehicle, without the need for major changes to the Boxer’s existing design,” he said.
“It’s a strong example of how collaborative innovation by industry can accelerate capability development, and we look forward to progressing this work toward full integration.”
If you want to see some of the cool shit the Breaker team is doing – and it looks like Tom Cruise should have in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, check out this video.
