Quartermaster

Maritime Intelligence · Defense Tech · Hardware

Funding

Maritime intelligence startup Quartermaster raises $140M Series B

The war in Iran's shipping disruption turned a niche sensor bet into urgent demand from commercial fleets.

• Quartermaster closed a $140 million Series B led by Insight Partners, just four months after a $43 million Series A in May 2026.
• The startup builds SmartMast, a ship-mounted sensor package combining HD cameras, radar and RF sensing to track vessels invisible to standard AIS location pings.
• About $100M of the round came from Insight Partners and new defense-focused backer Overmatch Ventures plus existing investor First Round Capital; the remaining $40M was a debt facility from Stifel.
• CEO Neil Sobin said investor urgency was fueled by the war in Iran and the shipping disruptions it triggered, sharpening the case for real-time ocean visibility.
• Quartermaster's sensors are now deployed across 600+ vessels in 25+ countries and have identified more than 400,000 ships operating outside AIS tracking.
• Global shipping remains one of the least-monitored parts of world infrastructure, and persistent real-time data could reshape collision prevention, insurance pricing and search-and-rescue.