Forterra
US ground-autonomy firm (formerly Robotic Research); its AutoDrive stack powers the Marines' ROGUE-Fires. Valued over $1B after a $238M 2025 Series C.
Background
Forterra is the rebranded face of Robotic Research, a Clarksburg, Maryland robotics house founded in 2002 by Alberto Lacaze and Karl Murphy that spent two decades building ground autonomy for the Pentagon, including what the company calls the Defense Department's first autonomous logistics convoy vehicles.
It took the Forterra name in February 2024. Its core product, the AutoDrive stack, is a platform-agnostic self-driving system designed to keep vehicles maneuvering in GPS-denied and jammed conditions, sold across both defense and commercial fleets.
Leadership splits the founder and operator roles. Lacaze, who holds more than 100 robotics patents, is now Chairman, President and Founder; day-to-day command sits with CEO Josh Araujo, a former Marine and defense investment banker who joined in 2021, led the Series A, and ran operations before taking the top job. Chief Growth Officer Scott Sanders is an Anduril alumnus.