Two MIT engineers who quit Boeing just raised $240M for their flying boat startup — TFN

• REGENT has raised $240 million in its Collection B spherical, with half of the funds supplied as debt by Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Financial institution.
• The funding spherical takes place proper earlier than the Viceroy seaglider makes its first full airborne flight.
• This spherical takes REGENT’s complete funding to $340 million as the corporate directs extra of its focus in direction of defence.

REGENT Craft has raised $ 240 million in its Collection B spherical, with the funds cut up equally between fairness and debt, and Mare Liberum and AE Ventures serving as co-lead traders. Erebor Financial institution, co-founded by Palmer Luckey, supplies half of the debt.

DCVC has now joined this funding spherical alongside earlier traders equivalent to Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Japan Airways, and Big Step Capital. The final funding spherical the corporate disclosed was a $60 million Collection A in 2023, with Mark Cuban as an investor. Since then, REGENT has grown from about 100 staff to a bigger staff, the dimensions of which is unknown.

This brings complete funding to $340 million and comes simply earlier than two main milestones, particularly, the primary absolutely aerial human flight of the Viceroy Seaglider and the opening of a brand new manufacturing plant.

“This funding marks a vital inflection level for REGENT as we transfer from growth into manufacturing. We have now constructed vital momentum throughout each our protection and industrial pipelines, and this funding allows us to scale manufacturing, execute key certification milestones, and ship Seagliders to prospects,” stated Billy Thalheimer, co-founder and CEO of REGENT Craft.

Two engineers left Boeing to construct a flying boat

Thalheimer and Mike Klinker had been freshmen collectively in an aerospace engineering class at MIT. He then labored for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic earlier than becoming a member of Aurora Flight Sciences, the place he led flight physics for Boeing’s electrical air taxi undertaking till Boeing took over the corporate.

Klinker, however, was accountable for creating management software program for autonomous autos at each the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Aurora Flight Sciences.

In 2020, each of them left their jobs within the aerospace sector to discovered REGENT, believing that by avoiding aviation regulators they may certify an electrical plane extra rapidly.

The Seaglider relies on this idea: it features as a ship when on the dock, employs retractable hydrofoils to navigate tough water, after which flies simply above the water at speeds of as much as 180 mph.

As a result of it doesn’t enter managed airspace, it’s lined by maritime legislation reasonably than aviation laws. This permits REGENT to keep away from the prolonged approval procedures that firms within the electrical aviation sector equivalent to Joby and Archer should undergo.

The corporate is now situated in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, having moved from the Boston space in an effort to benefit from the state’s coastal testing websites and its experience in maritime composites.

From coastal ferries to a defence contractor

Initially, REGENT sought to supply a faster and cheaper possibility than short-haul ferries and regional flights and already has greater than $9 billion in pre-orders from airways and ferry operators on six continents. This give attention to industrial operations remains to be going forward.

The corporate can also be reinforcing its partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Strategic Improvement Fund, which is owned by the EDGE Group, for the Seaglider’s operations and manufacturing within the UAE.

However, the vast majority of its new development is coming from the defence sector. REGENT has prolonged its contract with the US Marine Corps for the Viceroy platform, now valued at $15 million; developed an autonomous army model referred to as Squire; and established a devoted REGENT Defence unit to help the Division of Warfare with its maritime actions.

New agreements with Poland’s Balnord for operations within the Baltic Sea and with Greece’s iGrow for the Aegean are broadening REGENT’s defence and industrial attain in Europe.

The primary rivals of REGENT embody the Swedish companies Candela and X Shore, which produce smaller electrical hydrofoils, and the Chinese language firm Navee, which launched its private wing-in-ground-effect car, the WaveFly 5X, in June 2026.

These firms should not, nonetheless, pursuing army contracts on the identical scale as REGENT, which implies that REGENT is in direct competitors with specialised maritime defence start-ups equivalent to Britain’s Kraken Technology Group, which secured $175 million in a Collection B financing spherical in July 2026 and has a valuation in extra of $1 billion.

In 2025, enterprise funding in defence expertise reached a file excessive of $49.1 billion, the vast majority of that quantity going to america. The American defence contractor Defend AI raised $240 million at a $5.3 billion valuation, and European funds equivalent to AVP and Earlybird’s €500 million E2D fund is aiming to shut the funding hole with the US.

“As maritime defence priorities evolve, operators want new capabilities that ship higher pace, attain, and adaptability. REGENT is a pacesetter on this rising class with a robust observe file of technical growth and rising engagement with defence prospects. By combining our experience in maritime expertise and nationwide safety with REGENT’s progressive management and confirmed potential to ship, we’re effectively positioned to speed up the subsequent part of Seaglider expertise and its adoption throughout the defence market,” stated Admiral Lorin Selby, basic accomplice at Mare Liberum, which has backed REGENT throughout a number of prior rounds.

“REGENT is addressing a vital hole in maritime protection operations, and the progress made for the reason that institution of REGENT Protection — together with the primary flight of Squire and the completion of its manufacturing facility — positions the enterprise for its subsequent part of development,” added Brian Schettler, accomplice and head of AE Ventures, the enterprise arm of AE Industrial Companions, which manages $9.4 billion in belongings.

What’s subsequent

The funding will allow REGENT to extend manufacturing at its lately accomplished 255,000-square-foot facility in Rhode Island and also will help with the certification work previous to the Viceroy’s first full flight.

REGENT has now raised virtually 4 occasions the quantity it raised in its Collection A, primarily on account of having contracts and a accomplished manufacturing unit reasonably than having carried out a flight.

Whether or not this method works will in the end be decided by the outcomes of the primary absolutely loaded Viceroy flight.