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Scout AI

Category: AI in Defense / Aerospace

Scout AI raises $100M Series A to build VLA-based military AI for autonomous vehicles, with contracts from DARPA and Army. Scout AI was founded in 2024. The company is led by Colby Adcock. Based in Sunnyvale, CA. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $100M. Latest round: Series A. Key investors include ["Align Ventures","Draper Associates","Booz Allen Hamilton (VC arm)","Decisive Point","BVVC","Neman Ventures","Evolution VC Partners","Heraclitus Capital Management","Sigmas Group","Disruptive Founders Fund","Vaughn Capital Partners"].

Founded
2024
Headquarters
Sunnyvale, CA
Team size
11-50
Total funding
$100M

Value proposition

Scout AI builds a Vision Language Action (VLA) model named 'Fury' to control military ATVs and drones, starting with logistics and moving toward autonomous weapons, with contracts from DARPA and the Army.

Products and solutions

["Fury (VLA model for autonomous military vehicles)","Autonomous ATV control system","Autonomous drone control system"]

Target customer

U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), including DARPA, Army Applications Laboratory, and Army units such as the 1st Cavalry Division

Industries served

["Defense","Autonomous Vehicles","Robotics"]

Technology advantage

Vision Language Action (VLA) model adapted from Google DeepMind research, designed to be lightweight, modular, and hardware-agnostic for contested environments.

How they differentiate

Unlike traditional defense contractors, Scout AI applies generalist AI architectures (VLAs) from the foundation-model ecosystem to military autonomy, with a direct path to deployment via military procurement rather than enterprise sales.

Main competitors

["Physical Intelligence","Figure.AI"]

Key partnerships

["DARPA","Army Applications Laboratory","U.S. Department of Defense"]

Notable customers

["DARPA","Army Applications Laboratory","1st Cavalry Division (U.S. Army)"]

Major milestones

["Scout AI raises $100M Series A to build VLA-based military AI for autonomous vehicles, with contracts from DARPA and Army.","Founded in 2024 by Colby Adcock and Collin Otis","Raised $15M seed round in early 2025","Secured $11M in contracts from DARPA, Army Applications Laboratory, and other DoD customers","Raised $100M Series A led by Align Ventures and Draper Associates in April 2026","Building VLA model 'Fury' for ATVs and drones; six weeks into training at time of reporting","One of 20 autonomy companies evaluated by Army's 1st Cavalry Division for 2027 deployment"]

Market positioning

One of 20 autonomy companies being evaluated by the Army's 1st Cavalry Division for deployment in 2027, representing a structural shift toward AI-first defense solutions.

About Colby Adcock

Colby Adcock previously served as a Board Member at CARET and Figure, and as a Principal at Thomas H Lee Partners (Sept 2020-Sept 2024). Earlier, he was Vice President at GCP Capital Partners. He holds a BS in Finance from the University of Florida.

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