E442: Nelson Mills on Building a $100 Billion Company, the China Threat, and the Future of War

Vatn Systems aims to become an undersea-autonomy defense prime by driving UUV costs from millions to under $200K, enabling asymmetric naval warfare at scale.

• $85M raised, $40M+ in contracts: Vatn Systems went from a $2M/$8M-cap pre-seed in 30 days to an $85M total raise after seed and above-average Series A rounds; its S6 vehicle just hit full production readiness.
• Scaling manufacturing globally: A new 90,000-sq-ft Rhode Island facility targets hundreds of units per month; Vatn is expanding into Taiwan, Japan (distribution deal) and Europe.

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