NODA AI, an AI-native defense technology company, announced it has raised $25 million in Series A funding to accelerate development of its AI-powered orchestration platform and autonomous plays for the Department of War and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Booz Allen Ventures, Draper Associates, Bloomberg Beta, and Alumni Ventures.
The company said the new capital will help it deliver on key milestones for Department of War customers, deepen integrations across more than 30 existing platforms, and expand its technical capabilities into new defense and intelligence markets.
Founded in 2024 by Global War on Terrorism veterans, NODA AI is building a vendor-agnostic reasoning platform designed to orchestrate algorithmic warfare across manned and unmanned systems. The company aims to address fragmentation in current unmanned control systems, which it describes as vendor-siloed and overly deterministic, creating operational silos and cognitive burden for warfighters.
Positioned as an independent cognitive layer, NODA AI works with OEMs to integrate vehicles and autonomous capabilities into a growing ecosystem of more than 30 partners. The company also collaborates with government agencies to develop cross-platform tactics and strategies, leveraging its AI reasoning engine to coordinate large mixed fleets across air, space, surface, subsurface, and ground domains.
The platform has been selected over several large incumbents in key programs and has secured multiple awards within major defense initiatives. In the nine months since its pre-seed funding, the company said it has built what it describes as the largest technically integrated partner system in defense autonomy. NODA AI has also partnered with major defense contractors including Booz Allen Hamilton and Huntington Ingalls Industries.
Bessemer Venture Partners, which led the round, highlighted the company’s role in advancing interoperability and collaboration in defense autonomy. Early investor Paige Craig of Outlander noted that NODA AI has been the fastest-growing company in his firm’s portfolio.
NODA AI said it is building a deep, cross-platform algorithm repository to enable operators to manage desired operational effects rather than individual systems, supporting what it describes as the next generation of algorithmic warfare.
KEY QUOTES:
“Mass autonomy in defense demands a new generation of algorithmic warfare – a new market category and technical approach that we are pioneering at NODA AI. The essence of defeating adversaries is making better, faster decisions, and the next frontier will be the ability to harmonize decision making across an ecosystem of independent autonomous systems with diverse capabilities. While much of the defense industrial base is focused on building the best vehicles and their respective platform autonomies, functionally the chess pieces, we are ruthlessly focused on creating the brains, the best chess player — a system capable of adaptive reasoning, real-time tactics and strategy handling, and the ability to transform a set of independent capabilities into desired effects.”
Philong Duong, Chief Executive Officer, NODA AI
“NODA AI has been selected to lead the development of the orchestration layer for our multi-domain collaborative autonomy program. Their work is vital to advancing the Department’s autonomous force structure and directly supports the Secretary of War’s priorities. Their advanced AI orchestration technologies enable seamless coordination across unmanned and manned systems spanning air, space, surface, subsurface, and ground domains, making them pivotal to achieving operational superiority.”
Senior DoW Official
“NODA AI is building the AI-native connective tissue for defense autonomy, enabling collaboration and interoperability between systems, and we’re proud to partner with their team as they define the future of algorithmic warfare.” We’re impressed by their technical depth, speed of execution, and mission-driven focus to deliver real operational advantage,
Janelle Teng Wade, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners; Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Operating Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
“NODA AI has been the fastest growing company in our portfolio and is onto something big,”
Paige Craig, Managing Partner, Outlander
