# Akhil Voorakkara

> Akhil Voorakkara is the co-founder and CEO of Ulysses, a San Francisco maritime robotics company building low-cost autonomous surface and underwater vehicles. His path runs from youth coding projects and Dublin engineering competitions through drone delivery and consulting, then into a four-founder company that began with seagrass restoration and expanded into scientific, commercial, and defense missions.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Ulysses
- **Organizations:** Ulysses, McKinsey & Company, Manna, Éirloop, CoderDojo, Dublin City University
- **Education:** First Class Honours; field not publicly specified, Dublin City University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Ulysses and led it from an early seagrass-planting prototype to commercial, scientific, and government maritime robotics deployments., Helped Ulysses raise a $2 million pre-seed round, an $8 million seed round, and a $38 million Series A., Ulysses reported more than $5 million in customer revenue by April 2026 and field-tested five generations of underwater vehicle prototypes.

## Career timeline

- **2014-2020** — Mentored students at CoderDojo.
- **2016** — Led the LifeStats team that won first prize in the concept category of Ireland's Apps4Gaps competition; also listed a NASA national win and international finalist result for a low-cost IoT water-monitoring project.
- **2017-2021** — Studied at Dublin City University, graduating with First Class Honours; co-founded Éirloop and chaired the Space and Robotics Society.
- **2018** — Served as Head of Electronics for Éirloop, the Irish student team selected among 20 finalists from more than 700 entries for SpaceX's Hyperloop Pod Competition.
- **After 2021** — Worked as an electronics engineer at Irish drone-delivery startup Manna, where he met future Ulysses CTO Jamie Wedderburn.
- **Before 2023** — Worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
- **2023** — Co-founded Ulysses with Jamie Wedderburn, Will O'Brien, and Colm O'Brien in Dublin; the team later established operations in San Francisco.
- **2024** — Ulysses emerged from stealth with a $2 million pre-seed round after developing a robotic approach to seagrass restoration.
- **2025** — Ulysses closed an $8 million seed round, expanded its team, and successfully returned to an Australian deployment after an earlier failed mission.
- **2026** — Ulysses announced a $38 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Booz Allen Ventures and Harpoon Ventures.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Ulysses and led it from an early seagrass-planting prototype to commercial, scientific, and government maritime robotics deployments.
- Helped Ulysses raise a $2 million pre-seed round, an $8 million seed round, and a $38 million Series A.
- Ulysses reported more than $5 million in customer revenue by April 2026 and field-tested five generations of underwater vehicle prototypes.
- Co-founded Éirloop, Ireland's student Hyperloop team, and served as Head of Electronics when it reached the 2018 SpaceX competition final.
- Won multiple student engineering, open-data, and computer-vision competitions, including first place at AIB Datahack in 2018 and the Apps4Gaps concept category in 2016.
- Named a principal investigator on a Florida project developing technology for kilometer-scale seagrass restoration.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — A long-form profile documented Ulysses' founding, a failed Australian mission, the team's successful return, and its growth into a 14,000-square-foot San Francisco factory.
- **2026-04** — Ulysses announced a $38 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, alongside a previously undisclosed $8 million seed round.
- **2026-04** — Voorakkara appeared with co-founder Will O'Brien on the Core Memory podcast to discuss Ulysses' $50,000 Mako underwater drone and the company's expansion across conservation, research, and defense.
- **2026-04** — Ulysses said it had field-tested five generations of underwater vehicles, generated more than $5 million in customer revenue, and planned to scale Mako production while advancing Leviathan and Kraken.
- **2026-02** — Booz Allen Ventures announced an investment in Ulysses as part of the company's Series A round.

## Links

- Website: https://ulysses.inc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhil-voorakkara

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/akhil-voorakkara
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-17