REGENT

REGENT Craft, the developer and manufacturer of Seaglider vessels, announced a $240 million Series B, an equal mix of equity and debt, co-led by Mare Liberum and AE Ventures, with debt capital provided by Erebor Bank. The Rhode Island company builds all-electric wing-in-ground-effect vehicles that "float, foil, and fly" just above the water, aimed at replacing short-haul coastal aircraft and ferries for both commercial operators and defense customers. Co-founders Billy Thalheimer and Mike Klinker, both MIT-trained engineers, founded REGENT in 2020 to improve regional coastal transportation. This round matters because it funds the transition from prototype to production. The capital will bring REGENT's 255,000-square-foot Seaglider Manufacturing Facility online and support imminent milestones including the first human flight of the Viceroy prototype and expanded military partnerships. On the demand side, the company points to an expanded US Marine Corps contract for the Viceroy platform, rising interest in the autonomous Squire drone variant, and a commercial order book spanning six continents with multiple years of manufacturing capacity already booked. The investor mix reflects the dual-use thesis. Mare Liberum, led by Admiral Lorin Selby, invests at the intersection of critical technologies and the maritime domain, while AE Ventures is the venture arm of AE Industrial Partners with a portfolio focused on aerospace and national security. For founders and operators watching electric aviation and defense-tech, REGENT is one of the clearer tests of whether a novel vehicle class can reach serial production with military anchor orders alongside a commercial backlog.