Feb 18 (Reuters) - Saronic Technologies said on Tuesday

it has closed a $600 million Series C funding round, led by

investor Elad Gil, which valued the autonomous shipbuilding

company at $4 billion.

The company said it would use the funds to build a new

shipyard, called Port Alpha, to expand its autonomous surface

vessel fleet into medium and large-class ships for the United

States defense applications.

It would also use the proceeds to develop hybrid fleets for

the U.S. Navy by integrating a significant number of unmanned

systems and manned platforms.

"With this raise, we will invest into the U.S. shipbuilding

infrastructure and work with federal and state legislators to

establish public-private partnerships," Saronic said.

The company received the backing of a new investor, General

Catalyst in the latest funding round. Its existing investors

include a16z, Caffeinated Capital and Palantir Technologies ( PLTR )

co-founder Joe Lonsdale's 8VC.

Venture firms are growing more comfortable with signing big

checks as a recovery in dealmaking and initial public offerings,

spurred by interest rate cuts, provides them with greater

opportunities to exit their investments.

Global venture capital dealmaking activity rose more than 5%

to $368.5 billion last year, according to a report by PitchBook.

In December, the Financial Times reported that Saronic is

expected to be part of a proposed consortium, which may also

include data analytics firm Palantir ( PLTR ) and defense tech company

Anduril Industries, to jointly bid for U.S. government work and

supply cutting-edge defense and weapons capabilities.