Saronic, Austin, Texas, a $4 billion autonomous vessels startup, on Thursday announced two of its co-founders have transitioned into expanded leadership roles. Doug Lambert has been named chief operating officer (COO), and Vib Altekar has been named chief technology officer (CTO).
As COO, Lambert will lead Saronic’s operational strategy, overseeing R&D, engineering, and production. He will strengthen coordination across the supply chain and services teams while working with the CEO and executive team to refine operations and scale delivery of the company’s autonomous surface vessels (ASVs).
“Doug has been foundational to Saronic’s growth, scaling our engineering and production capabilities to deliver three ASV models in under three years,” said Dino Mavrookas, Saronic CEO. “He built a modular manufacturing system, implemented rigorous quality controls, and created an integrated R&D-to-production pipeline — all of which have enabled us to innovate faster, deliver more reliably, and meet growing demand with unprecedented speed.”
As CTO, Altekar will drive the development of Saronic’s autonomous systems and software, setting the vision and technical roadmap for autonomy, onboard systems, and artificial intelligence integration. He will lead forward-deployed engineering, product, and special programs, while continuing to oversee software across teams in perception, navigation, machine learning, command and control, and systems integration.
“Vib has been the driving force behind Saronic’s autonomy capabilities, building a world-class engineering team and leading the development of our autonomy stack from the ground up. His integration of advanced machine learning and sensor fusion has pushed the boundaries of maritime perception and situational awareness, even in the most challenging environments,” said Mavrookas. “Under his leadership, we transitioned robust software systems from prototype to production and developed a powerful simulation framework that enables rapid, scalable testing — accelerating innovation across every ASV we deploy.”
Saronic is among a group of new and existing companies developing autonomous vessels for the U.S. Navy and other defense customers.
In February, Saronic closed a $600 million Series C funding round, bringing its valuation to $4 billion — quadrupling its worth in just seven months.
Last month, the company acquired a nearly 100-acre facility from Franklin, La. shipbuilder Gulf Craft that will serve as the prototyping and production hub for Saronic’s medium uncrewed surface vessel (MUSV) fleet, starting with the 150' ASV Marauder.
