Regent Craft, a Rhode Island maker of electric seagliders, has closed a $60 million Series A round, co-led by New York- and Washington, D.C.-based 8090 Industries and San Francisco’s Founders Fund. The funding includes previously announced strategic investments by Lockheed Martin, Japan Airlines Innovation Fund and Yamato Holdings.
Other investors in the round included Point72 Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, billionaire Mark Cuban, the U.A.E.’s Strategic Development Fund and Future Planet Capital. So far, Regent has raised $90 million from venture investors.
MIT Engineers at Helm
Regent was co-founded in 2020 by two MIT engineers — Billy Thalheimer, who serves as CEO, and Mike Klinker, the company’s chief technology officer. Klinker worked with Thalheimer at Aurora Flight Sciences, besides stints at Raptor Maps and MIT Lincoln Labs.
The startup is developing an electric seaglider, named Viceroy, that can carry 12 passengers over up to 180 miles. It is also working on a longer-range vessel called Monarch that can carry 100 passengers over a distance of up to 500 miles, and others to meet cargo and defense needs. The Series A round will fully cover the costs of fully building and testing a prototype with a flight crew in 2024, the company said.
“There are extraordinarily few companies today with battery-powered vehicles that can fly human crew, and Regent is about to join those ranks,” said Thalheimer, who previously worked at Aurora Flight Sciences and once interned at Jeff Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin. Thalheimer holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from MIT.
Faster, Cheaper, Cleaner
“Regent has both a category-defining technology and a strong business model that will solidify their position as a leader in sustainable transportation this decade,” said Kerem Ozmen, co-founder and CEO of 8090 Industries. With the venture firm primarily eyeing startups in sustainability, and aerospace and defense, Regent falls perfectly in the intersection, he added.
Ahead of a test of its prototype with humans aboard, Regent has built an order book of over $8 billion for over 500 seagliders. Companies seeking to buy the seagliders include Mesa Airlines, Brittany Ferries and FRS. Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, a strategic investor in Regent, is eyeing defense uses.
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“We believe that Regent seagliders can bring tailored solutions to the future battlespace,” Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures, said last year, when the aerospace giant announced its investment in Regent.
Founders Fund partner Delian Asparouhov termed Regent a “once-in-a-generation company, with the power to truly transform an entire sector.” The company’s “faster, cheaper, and cleaner” solution for regional mobility is the first radical advance in transportation in decades, he added.
With a focus on sustainability, and aerospace and defense startups, 8090 Industries has over $200 million in assets under management. The firm was co-founded by Kerem Ozmen, who previously was founding partner and managing director for two Kairos K50 funds, and Rayyan Islam, the Bangladesh-born co-founder of Industrial Decarbonization Fund and Gold Hydrogen. Ozmen serves as the firm’s CEO. It has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Houston and London.
