Israeli deep-tech start-up Shifters, which develops AI-native autonomous robotic teams, has raised $10.2 million in seed funding, led by Ace Capital Partners, along with Aurelius Capital Management, Corner Ventures, Arkin Capital, and Fresh Fund. The financing brings the company’s total funding to $15 million as it accelerates development of AI‑native autonomous ground robotics designed to keep troops out of harm’s way on the battlefield.
The Washington‑based company with research and development (R&D) operations in Israel was founded in 2023 by CEO Ofer Ballin and CTO Assaf Chaprak. It is developing supervised autonomous ground robotic systems intended to enter high-risk and contested environments before troops do.
“We started the company because we wanted to serve, in our view, the noblest of causes: preserving human life. There is a gap today between what technology can do and what still happens in the physical ground domain, and Shifters fills that gap,” Chaprak told Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post.
Shifters’ platform is built around supervised autonomy, where robotic teams can operate in complex environments while remaining under human oversight. The company says this approach is essential for real‑world deployment, where unpredictable terrain and mission‑specific constraints require both adaptability and operator trust.
“The first asset into a dangerous environment should increasingly be a robot, not a person,” Ballin said. “This funding allows us to accelerate the systems that make that possible: coordinated robotic teams that can be directed, intuitively, by one operator, adapt to complex ground environments, and reduce human exposure before a mission escalates.”
A wide range of applications
Shifters’ technology is aimed at both defense and commercial markets.
The platforms can be used in reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, perimeter monitoring, sensing, and high-risk mission preparation and equipped with a range of payloads, depending on operational needs, from cameras and scanners to armed configurations operated by a human. Commercial uses span infrastructure inspections, agriculture, mining, and search and rescue.
“Wherever it's dangerous for people to go first. That's where we have the edge,” Ballin told D&T. “Even if world peace would be declared tomorrow, there is a huge scale of need and use cases and applications for robots to replace humans.”
Shifters is designing its platform with Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) principles, robust APIs, and partner support to enable mission-specific payload configurations and integration across customer environments.
The company argues that while aerial drones have transformed how militaries and security teams gather intelligence and extend their reach, the ground domain remains far more dangerous. Many missions still require personnel to move through rubble, tunnels, contaminated areas, and denied environments without sufficient visibility.
Shifters’ founders say their goal is to change that dynamic by making coordinated robotic teams the first assets into these environments.
“The challenge is not simply building a robot that can move,” Chaprak said. “It is solving a dual hardware and software challenge: enabling robotic teams to operate in demanding environments while keeping human supervision simple. Ultimately, the goal is to make these systems deployable at scale, so they can help reduce risk to human life where the operating conditions are most complex. That is the multi-layered challenge Shifters is solving.”
Funding momentum and investor confidence
According to the Shifters, the investor group brings experience across aerospace, defense, dual‑use national‑security technologies, and early‑stage deep‑tech commercialization – an indication of growing demand for robotic systems capable of supporting high‑risk missions.
In a LinkedIn post, Ace Capital Partners said that the “founding team pairing elite operational leadership with a proven track record of building and hardware companies” is one of the reasons why they led the round. The company also has deep technical expertise across AI, robotics, and mechatronics, with a team drawn from global technology and defense organizations.
Shimon Tsentsiper, co‑founder and managing partner at Ace Capital Partners, said the firm sees Shifters as aligned with the future of defense autonomy.
“At Ace Capital Partners, we continue to back the technologies redefining defense and dual-use autonomy. Shifters is exactly that kind of company, and the AI motion control layer it is building is exactly the kind of capability, we believe, will define the next era of ground robotics,” he said.
In the LinkedIn post, Ace Capital said that Shifters is building a “category-defining AI motion control stack that addresses the hardest problem in legged robotics – autonomous navigation in complex, unseen environments.”
“At Ace Capital Partners, we continue to back the technologies redefining defense and dual-use autonomy. Shifters is exactly that kind of company, and the AI motion control layer it is building is exactly the kind of capability we believe will define the next era of ground robotics,” they added.
Building for defense needs and real‑world integration
Shifters says its systems are being developed in line with recent US Department of War priorities emphasizing AI adoption, modular open systems, autonomy, and operationally relevant technologies.
Shifters has already completed demonstrations of coordinated robotic entry and navigation with defense and security stakeholders. The new funding will be used to expand agentic AI capabilities, accelerate manufacturing readiness, and grow its presence in the US, Middle East, and Europe.
Shifters will unveil TRUST for the first time at the American Army pavilion at Eurosatory in France in mid-June.