There’s a reason warfighters don’t rely on cloud when the comms go dark, and EdgeRunner AI just dropped $12M in Series A to make sure their AI doesn’t either.
This isn’t another “AI for good” startup selling vapor. EdgeRunner is building generative intelligence that doesn’t need to phone home. No cloud. No signal. No problem. Founded in 2024 by Tyler Xuan Saltsman (CEO) and Colton Malkerson (COO), two operators who’ve logged miles on both the battlefield and the boardroom, the Seattle-based team is turning latency and leakage into legacy.
Tyler’s an Army veteran who went from running logistics under fire to leading super compute at Stability AI. Colton brought AI to enterprise at AWS, then ran top-tier sales at Stability. Together? They’ve seen every weak link in the AI chain, and they’re breaking it down to build something stronger. Think US Army meets AWS with a side of DARPA precision.
EdgeRunner isn’t just edge computing. It’s edge commitment. Their flagship platform, EdgeRunner Athena, brings small, ultra-efficient language models (UELMs) straight to the device, trained for mission-specific personas in logistics, maintenance, and beyond. Offline. Air-gapped. Fully functional in denied, disrupted, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environments. This is generative AI that doesn’t panic when the WiFi drops.
And the market? It’s listening. The $12M Series A, led by Madrona, with return fire from Four Rivers, Hp Tech, and Alumni Ventures, is more than just a capital injection. It’s a validation of a go-to-market play that’s as tight as the tech. Matt McIlwain from Madrona is now on the board. That’s not a vanity add, it’s a bet that EdgeRunner’s already in motion.
Momentum’s real. They’ve locked in a CRADA with the United States Air Force Research Lab. Partnered with Second Front Systems to deploy agents at the tactical edge. They’re on CB Insights AI100. And they’re optimizing for Intel AI PCs, bringing high-grade inference to standard hardware like it’s a field kit.
EdgeRunner isn’t building AI that talks about missions. They’re building AI that completes them. Quietly, securely, efficiently. If you're in enterprise or defense and you're still waiting on the cloud to catch up, you’re falling behind.
This isn’t a pivot. It’s a purpose. Generative AI for the warfighter. For the disconnected. For the denied. That’s what happens when your north star isn’t hype, it’s home.
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