Theseus Raises $4.3 Million Seed Round Led By First Round Capital With Participation From Y Combinator And Lux Capital

After a viral hackathon project where three engineers under 25 built a sub-$500 drone that calculated GPS coordinates using just a camera and Google Maps, Ian Laffey, Sacha Lévy, and Carl Schoeller turned their weekend build into a startup. One tweet later, they were accepted into Y Combinator’s Spring 2024 batch—and now, they’ve raised a $4.3 million seed round led by First Round Capital, with participation from Y Combinator and Lux Capital. Theseus, now based in San Francisco, isn’t building drones—it’s building the core software and hardware components that enable unmanned drones to navigate without GPS. In war zones like Ukraine, where GPS jamming is rampant, that’s more than a feature—it’s critical infrastructure. While the company hasn’t deployed in combat yet, it has entered a testing agreement with U.S. Special Forces and is using the new capital to expand its engineering team and continue tech development. Theseus joins a growing wave of defense-tech startups reimagining battlefield autonomy. Its focus: getting drones from point A to point B—regardless of weather, fog, or jamming. AMOUNT: $4,300,000 FOUNDERS: Ian Laffey, Sacha Lévy, Carl Schoeller SECTOR: Defense Tech / Navigation / Autonomous Drones INVESTORS: First Round Capital, Y Combinator, Lux Capital #TradedVC #Theseus #DefenseTech #FirstRoundCapital #YCombinator #LuxCapital #DroneTech #AutonomousSystems #GPSFree #SeedFunding #StartupNews