Breaker wins Aus$9M to tackle UxV ‘operator bottleneck’

Sydney based defence AI start-up Breaker has raised AUS$9 million (US$6.4 million) in seed funding from US venture capital fund Bessemer Venture Partners to tackle what CEO and co-founder Matt Buffa calls the ‘operator bottleneck’ in exploiting AI on the battlefield. Breaker’s platform-agnostic AI agent, dubbed Avalon, allows military operators to use voice commands and existing wireless links to coordinate swarms of autonomous systems across air, land and sea, says 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,” he said. “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.

“Our goal is to make robots that act more like humans, allowing operators to, you know, drive, fly or fight, while still being able to engage with teams of autonomous systems.”

The Avalon software is designed to make autonomous systems behave like humans, explains Buffa: “You can talk to it. It talks back. It understands nuance. It understands context. It can make nuanced or specific decisions based on your mission.

“And for us, that was key: allowing…people who have to do other things to have access to this capability. You can’t drive a tank and operate even one of these systems. You can’t fly a helicopter.”

The US Army has unveiled plans to acquire hundreds of thousands of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UASs) of various sizes. Some of these will be used on AH-64E Apache – which is now configured for Manned/Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) – and UH-60M Blackhawk helicopters as ‘launched effects’ – UASs that can carry out Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and even strike missions, at some distance from the helicopter.

The Australian Army is acquiring 29 AH-64E Apaches and the British Army has acquired 50; the latter has started searching for MUM-T UASs to operate alongside it under Project NYX.

The Avalon software runs entirely on 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, the company says.

It has undergone successful demonstration contracts with both US Special Operations Command and the Singaporean Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA). And Breaker recently completed a joint demonstration with Rheinmetall Defence Australia at its Australian test facility, integrating Avalon into the Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle’s (CRV) 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 CRV,” according to Adam Henrichs, Director of Advanced Development at Rheinmetall Australia.

“By integrating Breaker’s software into Boxer, operators were able to task a UAS 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.”

The Australian Army plans to operate 211 Rheinmetall Boxer CRVs and Rheinmetall Australia is building a further 123 Boxer Heavy Weapon Carrier variants at its Brisbane facility for the German Army under a contract worth more than US$700 million (AUS$1 billion).

The fund-raising was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, with follow-on investment from Sydney based Main Sequence Ventures. This comes 10 months after Main Sequence Ventures led Breaker’s pre-seed round which helped fund Breaker’s new US headquarters in Austin, Texas.

“As outlined in Bessemer’s 2026 Defense Tech Roadmap, we are seeing a period of rapid transformation as uncrewed systems proliferate at scale,” says David Cowan, a 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.”

Austin is seen as tech-friendly, Buffa told Shephard Media; the US Defense Innovation Unit has a satellite office there and the US Army’s Futures Command is based there also.

Breaker currently employs 18 personnel, the majority in Sydney, and expects to employ 25 by mid-year. The company’s growth, says Buffa, will be focussed on Austin, but it will retain a footprint in Sydney: “Obviously the primary reason to be (In Austin)….is to be next to the customers and end users. But … we do a lot of R&D in Australia (and) the talent in Australia is absolutely amazing. So we definitely never want to leave that amazing capability on the table.”