# Aurelius Systems

> Aurelius Systems is a San Francisco defense-technology startup building Archimedes, an autonomous, high-powered laser turret that detects, tracks and neutralizes drones in seconds for roughly the cost of electricity. Founded in 2024 by photonics veterans Michael LaFramboise and John Marmaduke, the company fuses commercial off-the-shelf hardware, advanced optics and AI-guided targeting into a compact, low-cost counter-UAS platform aimed at protecting soldiers and critical infrastructure from cheap, swarming aerial threats.

- **Founded:** 2024
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founders:** Michael LaFramboise (Co-Founder & CEO), John Marmaduke (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~22 employees
- **Products:** Archimedes, Directed-energy platform
- **Notable:** Closed a $10M seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Draper Associates (Sept 2025), Won a Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) award in the U.S.-Singapore Joint Challenge for counter-drone systems, Attracted angel backing from Naval Ravikant

## Products & services

- **Archimedes** — An autonomous counter-UAS laser system - a lightweight, modular robotic turret that combines advanced sensors, AI-guided tracking and a high-powered directed-energy source in a single compact unit. It identifies drones over 2 km away and neutralizes targets beyond 1 km within seconds, at a marginal cost of roughly $0.10 per engagement.
- **Directed-energy platform** — A software-defined, low size-weight-and-power (SWaP) laser architecture running on commercial off-the-shelf batteries, engineered for rapid deployment, field maintenance and repeatable performance in adverse weather.

## Achievements

- Closed a $10M seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Draper Associates (Sept 2025)
- Won a Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) award in the U.S.-Singapore Joint Challenge for counter-drone systems
- Attracted angel backing from Naval Ravikant
- Engineered a counter-UAS engagement cost of roughly $0.10 per drone vs $200k+ for legacy systems and up to $2M for missiles
- Demonstrated a path from working prototype in days to field-ready systems in under 18 months

## Latest updates

- **2025-09** — Announced the close of a $10 million seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Draper Associates to scale operations and accelerate its next-generation laser platform.
- **2024-10** — Raised an additional $1.25M from angel investor Naval Ravikant.
- **2024-07** — Raised $2.1M in its initial funding round via Founders Inc.

## Links

- Website: https://www.aureliussystems.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurelius-systems
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/aureliuslasers
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/aureliussystems

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/aurelius-systems
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-07