Defence start-up Breaker raises $9m in seed funding after Boxer demonstration

This seed funding will be used to drive the development and adoption of its AI agent software.

Breaker’s platform-agnostic software allows military operators to coordinate teams of autonomous systems across air, land and sea with their voice.

“The operator bottleneck is one of the ADF’s most expensive capability gaps,” according to Breaker co-founder Matthew Buffa.

“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.

“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.

“In this drone warfare era, the next frontier is orchestration; how to manage and coordinate robotic teams at speed, at scale and under pressure.

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“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.”

Breaker’s software runs entirely onboard each robot, with no reliance on cloud connectivity or external networks. When communications are jammed or denied, the agents continue operating autonomously, making mission-aligned decisions at the edge.

This latest funding announcement puts Breaker in the top 25 per cent of US seed rounds and is three times larger than the median Australian seed round.

Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the world’s longest-standing venture firms – known for backing category-defining companies such as Canva, Rocket Lab, Shopify, Anthropic and Perplexity – led the round.

“As outlined in Bessemer’s 2026 Defence Tech Roadmap, we are seeing a period of rapid transformation as uncrewed systems proliferate at scale,” according to David Cowan, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners.

“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.”

Breaker’s technologies have been tried and tested worldwide, including successful demonstration contracts with both the United States Special Operations Command and Defence Science and Technology Agency Singapore.

Breaker recently completed a joint demonstration with Rheinmetall Defence Australia at its Australian test facility, integrating Breaker’s AI agent software into the Boxer armoured vehicle’s mission systems.

“This demonstration shows how Breaker’s AI agent can be seamlessly integrated at the tactical edge in complex warfighting environments, when coupled with a modern and open digital systems architecture such as the Boxer CRVs,” according to Rheinmetall Australia advanced development director Adam Henrichs.

“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.

“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.”

Breaker is an Australian defence technology start-up with headquarters in Sydney, NSW and Austin, Texas.