Aurelius Systems
Directed-energy counter-drone defense company
✽
Aurelius Systems is a San Francisco-based defense technology company developing autonomous directed-energy laser systems to counter unmanned aerial systems (UAS).13 Founded in 2024 by Michael LaFramboise and John Marmaduke, the company's flagship product, the Archimedes laser weapon system, uses high-power lasers, onboard sensors, and AI-driven autonomy to detect, track, and destroy drones at ranges exceeding one kilometer.1 Aurelius closed a $10 million seed round in September 2025 co-led by General Catalyst and Draper Associates, with additional backing from Founders Inc, Outlander VC, Decisive Point, and other investors.4
Michael LaFramboise graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2018, then served in the U.S. Navy before working in the automotive industry in Detroit.5 He subsequently joined Coherent, a laser and optical materials manufacturer, where he worked in research and development and then technical sales, selling components used in laser weapon systems.5 LaFramboise later enrolled in a PhD program at Columbia University specializing in nano-optical systems, but dropped out to start Aurelius after concluding that existing counter-drone solutions were inadequate.5 Before founding Aurelius, he also worked as a product manager at Amazon on consumer hardware.5
Co-founder John Marmaduke serves as chief technology officer and studied at Georgia Institute of Technology.1 General Catalyst described both founders as bringing "years of optical and photonics experience from leading U.S. laser manufacturers."2 LaFramboise has said that the drone threat became clear as the conflict in Ukraine demonstrated how inexpensive commercial drones could pin down infantry, destroy armored vehicles, and prevent movement between positions.2
The company was founded in 2024 in San Francisco.1 By late 2025, it employed more than 10 people, with research and development concentrated in San Francisco and additional interest in metro Detroit.3 In October 2025, the company hired Dustin Hicks, an industry executive, as Head of Growth.13
Aurelius' primary product is the Archimedes laser weapon system, named after the ancient Greek polymath said to have used focused sunlight to set Roman ships ablaze during the Siege of Syracuse.3 The system integrates a high-power directed-energy laser, advanced onboard sensors, and an AI autonomy stack into a single compact unit.10 The company states that Archimedes' sensors can identify targets at ranges over two kilometers and neutralize drones at distances exceeding one kilometer within seconds.1
The system's AI model is trained to differentiate drones from other objects by analyzing physical parameters such as dimensions, shapes, propeller profiles, and camera housings, as well as kinematic movement patterns describing how objects fly.7 Once a target is identified, the system autonomously determines an optimized aimpoint on the drone's structure and fires the laser for sufficient duration to incapacitate it.7
Aurelius designed Archimedes for mass deployment, with a modular form factor that can be mounted on pickup trucks, fixed installations, bunkers, and even the underside of larger drones.3 The company uses components from the automotive and industrial sectors rather than specialized defense-grade parts, an approach LaFramboise has described as choosing "the 70 IQ option" to reach the lowest possible cost and simplest engineering path.5 The system runs on commercial off-the-shelf batteries instead of generators, reducing weight, noise, and thermal signature.2 LaFramboise has stated the marginal cost of destroying a drone with Archimedes is approximately $0.10, compared to roughly $200,000 for a single-use counter-UAS interceptor drone or $2 million for a missile.2
When deployed in quantity, multiple Archimedes units are designed to form a networked defense grid providing persistent area protection for forces, facilities, and infrastructure.10 The company targets Group 1 and Group 2 drones, the small and medium unmanned systems that have become widespread on modern battlefields.11
Aurelius has participated in multiple iterations of the Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) program run by the Naval Postgraduate School at Camp Roberts, California.6 At the February 2025 JIFX event, the Archimedes system successfully engaged static and towed drones at distances of 50 and 110 meters, marking the longest range the company had achieved at the time.6 During that test, Chariot Defense's expeditionary battery system powered the Aurelius laser, replacing traditional generators and retaining enough capacity for over 1,000 additional shots after the demonstration.6
LaFramboise said of the February demonstration: "We're demonstrating that if there's a drone out there, we can enter a sentry mode, scan an area of the sky, identify the drone, track it, and bring the laser to bear on it."6 The company returned to JIFX in May 2025 with a more powerful laser and greater range, engaging small Group 1 quadcopters suspended from a moving gunnery line at distances up to 500 meters.7 In that test, the system relied on its full automation pipeline to scan, detect, classify the drone type, select an aimpoint, and fire.7
In October 2025, Aurelius won the U.S. Army's inaugural FUZE xTechDisrupt competition at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual meeting in Washington, D.C.8 A total of 375 companies participated in the competition, giving one-minute pitches in four categories: electronic warfare, power generation, unmanned aerial systems, and counter-UAS.8 Thirty-two finalists advanced, and eight winners were selected, each receiving $62,500 and an opportunity to participate in the U.S. Army Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center experimentation event in Hawaii.8 Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said of the Aurelius pitch: "I've heard hundreds of pitches at this point in the job and that was top five."9
The win connected Aurelius with several Army innovation organizations, including the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, Army Applications Laboratory, Army Futures Command, and Army xTech.9 LaFramboise told Axios the company regularly demonstrates for one- and two-star generals at military bases: "They see a drone explode, and then they're like, 'Alright, I'm in.'"3
Aurelius closed a $10 million seed round in September 2025, co-led by General Catalyst and Draper Associates.4 Paul Kwan, managing director of General Catalyst's global resilience team, said the company is "developing the affordable, adaptable defense layer the modern battlefield urgently needs."4 Tyrone Lee, a venture partner at Draper Associates, cited the escalation of drone warfare in Ukraine and the Middle East as demonstrating the need for autonomous laser defenses in any future conflict.4
Additional investors include Founders Inc, Outlander VC, Decisive Point, Squadra VC, and Alumni Ventures.111 The funding was intended to support hiring, production buildout, and continued military testing.3 LaFramboise stated in the announcement: "It's clear the US and our allies are extremely under-prepared for this new era of drone warfare. We started Aurelius Systems to deliver to the world the first series of mass produced laser weapons systems."4
General Catalyst framed its investment as part of a broader thesis that existing air defense systems, engineered for high-end threats like intercontinental ballistic missiles, are economically unsustainable against mass drone attacks.2 The firm noted that an $800 first-person-view drone intercepted by a $2 million missile represents a cost asymmetry that erodes force advantages.2 LaFramboise has described the competitive landscape through the lens of the innovator's dilemma, saying he has heard of laser weapon projects at defense primes being cancelled because they would outcompete their existing missile programs.5
The proliferation of small, low-cost drones on battlefields has created demand for defenses that can match the scale and economics of the threat.2 Existing counter-UAS approaches include kinetic interceptors, electronic warfare jamming, and high-power microwave systems, but each has limitations: interceptors are expensive per shot, jamming can be overcome by autonomous navigation, and microwave systems emit energy that cannot distinguish between hostile and friendly assets.2 Naval vessels may carry roughly one hundred interceptors, but that magazine can be depleted in minutes against a dense multi-vector drone swarm.2
Directed-energy weapons have been an area of military research for approximately 40 years, beginning with large systems designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.2 LaFramboise has argued that counter-small-UAS applications do not require massive specialized hardware, and instead need systems that leverage advances in software, compute, and photonics to reduce size, weight, and power enough for tactical deployment.2 The U.S. military has been expanding directed-energy investment, and LaFramboise has referenced Aurelius' ambitions beyond counter-drone defense, telling Axios: "We start out with the Archimedes. From there, we go into more Golden Dome stuff."3 Aurelius is also exploring power delivery at the tactical edge through its collaboration with Chariot Defense, whose battery systems replace generators for laser operations in the field.12