Problem

Splash Inc. addresses the difficulty and expense of maintaining persistent security and situational awareness across maritime borders, harbors, offshore infrastructure, and naval operating areas. The company is focused on detecting suspicious vessels, protecting assets such as oil rigs and shipping terminals, and operating in communication-denied environments where sending people or crewed patrol craft can be costly and risky. Its core economic thesis is that fleets of relatively low-cost autonomous boats can add coverage and mass without the cost of traditional naval vessels, while reducing personnel exposure and routine operating expense.

The clearest initial use case is autonomous coastal and critical-infrastructure patrol: a vessel can loiter over a wide area, enforce restricted zones, identify incoming or suspicious vessels, and automatically report threats. Splash says its boats can patrol hundreds of square miles, making border surveillance and protection of high-value offshore assets the likely “killer” application.

Product / Service

Splash builds autonomous surface vessels and the associated autonomy software in-house. Its sensor-fusion systems are intended to let the boats execute missions without continuous user input, including in communication-denied areas, while an integrated technology stack lets operators task and command a fleet rather than manually pilot each vessel. The company cites a top speed of 50 knots and a range of about 600 nautical miles, with all-weather and extended-endurance capabilities for patrol missions.

The boats are modular and can carry different payloads, including side-scan sonar for bathymetric surveys and deployable UAVs for wind-turbine inspections. Security is the primary focus, but the same platform can support naval operations, infrastructure monitoring, cargo delivery, and other commercial inspection work; Splash emphasizes quick setup, simple operation, and low maintenance. Its manufacturing model is designed to scale fleets economically rather than sell only a small number of bespoke vessels.

Market

Splash competes in the unmanned or autonomous surface-vehicle market, particularly the defense, maritime-security, harbor-patrol, and offshore-inspection segments. The broader competitive field includes established USV companies and platforms associated with Saildrone, L3Harris Technologies, Elbit Systems, Ocean Aero, and Textron Systems, as well as other maritime-robotics vendors offering autonomous patrol, surveillance, and data-gathering vessels. Splash’s positioning is differentiated by small, fast boats, in-house autonomy, modular payloads, and an emphasis on producing fleets at lower cost.

The company is an active Y Combinator Winter 2025 startup founded in 2024, with YC listing a nine-person Los Angeles team. Publicly reported technical traction includes more than 200 autonomous miles logged in San Francisco Bay and two complete boat builds in one month. A secondary startup profile reports a $20 million Series A led by Alexa Fund and BITKRAFT Ventures, but the gathered evidence does not independently verify that figure; it also does not identify a Splash customer contract, revenue figure, or deployed commercial fleet. The company therefore appears to be an early commercial-stage venture with meaningful prototype and fundraising signals, rather than a business whose market penetration or revenue has been publicly demonstrated.