Yurts, an AI integration platform focused on high-security businesses, has raised $40 million in Series B funding to enhance its role as a key AI assistant for the Department of Defense (DoD). The funding round, led by XYZ Venture Capital, pushes the company’s total investment to $58.35 million. Yurts, founded in August 2022, is already making strides with notable contracts, including a $16 million agreement with the United States Special Operations Command, and collaborations with the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Department of Energy.
Co-founder Ben Van Roo, whose family has deep ties to the Air Force, steered toward a tech-centric path after his vision fell short of pilot requirements. “My whole family was in the Air Force,” Van Roo noted, adding, “my vision wasn’t quite there.” Instead, he leaned on his background in machine learning and military research to launch Yurts, which now employs 50 people, about a quarter with security clearance. The platform supports tasks ranging from pulling data from legacy reports to brainstorming applications for military technology, making it the first of its kind on a secret Department of Defense network.
Van Roo’s journey includes prior roles at the RAND Corporation, where he tackled military supply chain issues, and Primer.ai, a defense-focused AI firm. His realization in 2017 of AI’s potential in securely modernizing legacy systems laid the groundwork for Yurts’ vision. “These models were going to keep getting better,” Van Roo said, “but someone’s going to have to say, how do we roll this out to tens of thousands of people in a very secure environment?”
Yurts’ founders, including former Meta engineer Jason Schnitzer and research scientist Guruprasad Raghavan, aim to position the platform as a critical tool for the DoD, alongside the Pentagon’s in-house AI chatbot development efforts. However, competition looms, with companies like Ask Sage and Primer.ai also vying for similar roles in military AI integration.
Despite the rivalry, Van Roo remains optimistic about the broader possibilities for enterprise-ready AI. “I’m confident that in the next 10 years, we’re probably going to get a pretty big next step-jump in the model space,” he said. “But I think that we have a long way to go to really achieve the value we can in enterprises.”
Featured image courtesy of www.yurts.ai
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