From Gaza's tunnels to Iran's bunkers: Israeli startup targets the underground war
Traysar launches with $25 million in funding to develop autonomous systems designed for military operations beneath the Earth's surface.
The rapid militarization of the underground battlefield has become one of the defining challenges facing modern armed forces, according to newly launched defense startup Traysar, which has emerged from stealth with $25 million in Seed funding to develop autonomous systems designed to operate beneath the Earth's surface.
The company, founded in August 2024 by Yadin Soffer, Asher Katz, and Gilad Adin, says it is building a new category of defense technology centered on what it calls the "subterra" domain, a battlefield that has received comparatively little investment despite becoming increasingly important in modern conflicts.
The funding round was led by Silent Ventures and included participation from Lux Capital, Ora Global, NeverLift VC, Mana, Impatient Ventures, New Vista, Entree Capital, and a group of strategic angel investors that includes entrepreneur Steve Blank as well as founders from Anduril and Erebor.
Traysar publicly introduced its technology earlier this month at the 2026 Reindustrialize Summit.
The company argues that while governments have spent hundreds of billions of dollars developing missiles, missile defense systems, drones, and counter-drone technologies, adversaries have increasingly shifted critical military assets underground, creating a capability gap that existing weapons struggle to address.
Among the examples cited by the company are China's investment in underground military facilities, acknowledged in a 2023 U.S. Department of War report to Congress; the challenge allied forces face in reaching Iran's deeply buried nuclear infrastructure; and Hamas' extensive tunnel networks, which the company says demonstrated how underground systems can support military operations while remaining difficult to target.
"Our message to adversaries is clear: there is no place to hide," said co-founder and CEO Yadin Soffer. "Traysar's mission is to expose every subterranean threat and equip the armies of the free world to fight in this new-yet-ancient dimension."
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company's initial product lineup focuses on autonomous platforms capable of operating in contested underground environments.
One system is designed as an excavator-class autonomous platform capable of breaching tunnels while navigating, mapping, and exploring underground networks. Another is intended to rapidly burrow beneath the surface to create precision underground access points capable of delivering payloads to otherwise inaccessible locations.
Beyond offensive applications, the company also sees underground infrastructure as a means of improving military resilience. It argues that the same technologies used to penetrate subterranean facilities can also help allied forces harden military bases, secure manufacturing sites, and protect logistics networks during attacks.
