Quartermaster announced that it raised $43 million in Series A funding co-led by First Round Capital and Quiet Capital, with participation from TMV, Steel Atlas, BoxGroup, Operator Partners, Shorewind Capital, and David Adelman. The company is using the funding to expand what it describes as the world’s largest pro-mariner sensing fleet.
The Arlington, Virginia-based company is building a distributed maritime awareness network through its SmartMast platform, which installs weather-hardened sensors, radios, cameras, and satellite connectivity systems on commercial vessels. These systems transform ships into intelligent sensing nodes capable of generating real-time maritime data on vessel activity, weather conditions, geolocation, and anomalies across global waterways.
Quartermaster said the oceans remain one of the least digitized environments in the world despite accounting for approximately 80% of global trade and covering 71% of the Earth’s surface. The company believes existing maritime monitoring infrastructure, including traditional AIS systems, is incomplete and vulnerable to spoofing and manipulation.
According to the company, its sensing network has already covered more than 10 million square miles of ocean, including 2.8 million square miles in April alone. The platform is active on more than 600 vessels operating across 25 countries and four continents. Quartermaster also said its network has assisted in more than 20 rescues of mariners at sea.
CEO Neil Sobin said the company is focused on creating the “awareness layer of the ocean” by partnering directly with mariners already operating at sea. Sobin previously worked at Scale AI and Hivemapper, experiences he said shaped the company’s approach to building decentralized sensing networks powered by real-world data collection.
Quartermaster plans to use the new capital to expand SmartMast deployments into additional vessel classes and geographies while growing its engineering, analytics, product, and go-to-market teams.
