Neil Sobin retweeted
Just four months since we co-led their Series A, @quartermasterai has grown its coverage by 77% and raised a preemptive $100M Series B from @insightpartners. Even for a software company, this pace would be very impressive, but @SobinNeil is doing it with hardware, out at sea, in incredibly volatile geopolitical conditions.
Neil started Quartermaster with a simple premise: the only sensing network that can actually scale to the ocean is the one that's already on the ocean.
This team is moving quickly, putting their SmartMast product on 650 working vessels from 25 countries. It very cleverly combines HD video, AI, radar, RF sensing, and AIS to turn working vessels already on the water into a live sensor network for the ocean’s surface.
This increased visibility helps mariners of all types navigate congested waters and busy ports, avoid potential hazards, and call for help in an emergency.
It also comes with tremendous built-in network effects that only become more valuable as they scale up. Neil has gone unreasonably deep on how all these different pieces of the business fit together, and we are so fortunate to be his partner here @firstround.
Neil Sobin retweeted
On July 2, our first #SmartMast unit successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz.
Proof that our real-time maritime awareness coverage is ready and equipped for the most demanding theaters of global shipping.
And special thanks to the Quartermaster team, our customers, and fleet partners who were instrumental in us getting this far. If you want to learn more about Quartermaster and how we’re filling the data gap in the ocean, I sat down with TechCrunch to chat about our raise.
Along the way, our network has helped assist in more than 20 rescues of mariners at sea. Thank you again to our investors TMV Logistics, @BoxGroup, @SteelAtlasVC, Operator Partners, Shorewind Capital, and @david_adelman.
The result so far: more than 10 million square miles of ocean covered to date, 2.8 million square miles in April alone, over 600 vessels active across 25 countries and four continents, and the largest pro-mariner sensing fleet of its kind.
We equip them with SmartMast, a sensor kit of cameras, radios, and satellite connectivity that installs in hours and turns each vessel into an intelligent node in a global sensing network.
The commercial and working fleet is the only infrastructure already distributed at ocean scale. Fishing boats, workboats, ferries, cargo vessels, offshore service vessels are already in the places where maritime data matters.
There are a lot of other approaches that have tried to fix the ocean’s data gap. But none of them (satellites, bespoke sensors, fragmented national systems) scale to a planet that is mostly water, and none work with the people who actually operate at sea.
It's the most poorly instrumented environment on the planet, and the fleet that could map it is already out there.
At Scale AI, I saw the other half: how much leverage AI systems have, and how completely that leverage depends on the underlying data. The ocean is where those two lessons collide.
I've spent my career on the two halves of this exact problem. At Hivemapper, I helped build a decentralized network of everyday cars that mapped the world block by block, proof that a distributed fleet of people already on the move can out-cover any centralized system.
Shipping companies, insurers, coast guards, fisheries regulators, and maritime autonomy companies all make consequential decisions every day on incomplete and delayed data. That has been true for decades, and AI doesn't solve it yet because the underlying data isn't there yet.
The ocean has not had its AI moment because it has not had its data moment. Quartermaster is building the largest maritime awareness network in the world to change that.
The ocean carries 80% of global trade and covers 71% of the planet, yet it remains one of the least instrumented environments on Earth.
Today we're announcing that Quartermaster has raised $43M in Series A funding, co-led by @firstround and @QuietCapital to close that gap.
Neil Sobin retweeted
#TB Hivemapper efforts in the Philippines were essential to our learning and product development 🇵🇭 Grateful to all testers and early Hivemapper adopters 🙏
Manila, Philippines (Case Study)📍
✅ 95% Hivemapper coverage
✅ 180,000 km mapped
✅ 75% monthly refresh rate
