总部位于弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿的初创公司 Quartermaster 于今年 5 月完成了金额为 4300 万美元的 A 轮融资。该公司致力于利用耐候性强的传感器来收集海况数据，并从中分析出有关海上活动的关键信息。这一创新理念广受欢迎，因此 Quartermaster 随后又成功完成了规模更大的 B 轮融资，此次融资金额达到了 1.4 亿美元。
Arlington, Virginia-based startup Quartermaster in May closed a $43 million Series A around its idea of using weather-hardened sensors to capture data and generate insights about maritime activity. That idea has proven popular, because Quartermaster has already closed a much larger Series B, bringing in $140 million this time. Founder and CEO Neil Sobin said the round was preempted by software-focused venture firm Insight Partners, and the interest in what Quartermaster is building was helped by the war in Iran and the shipping chaos it’s caused.
创始人兼首席执行官尼尔·索宾（Neil Sobin）表示，这轮融资的牵头方是专注于软件投资的风险投资公司 Insight Partners；对 Quartermaster 技术的兴趣主要源于伊朗战争以及由此引发的航运秩序混乱。索宾在采访中表示：“我们对自己的核心理念有了更加坚定的信心。今年，全球发生的各种事件进一步增强了我们的信心和紧迫感，因此我们必须抓住这个机会。”
“I think we we’ve gained huge amounts of conviction in the core thesis,” Sobin said in an exclusive interview. “A big part of the story for us this year was, events in the world drive that clarity and drive that conviction and urgency, and when you see that, you gotta seize the opportunity.”About $100 million of the Series B came from Insight and new investor, defense-focused firm Overmatch Ventures, as well as existing backers like First Round Capital. The remaining $40 million came in the form of a debt facility from investment bank Stifel.
B 轮融资中约有 1 亿美元来自 Insight Partners 和新投资者 Overmatch Ventures（一家专注于国防领域的投资公司），其余 4000 万美元则来自投资银行 Stifel 提供的贷款。
“Quartermaster is building a distributed network for the ocean, where reliable, real-time data has been difficult to come by,” Nick Sinai, managing director at Insight Partners, said in a statement to TechCrunch.
Insight Partners 的董事总经理尼克·西奈（Nick Sinai）向 TechCrunch 表示：“Quartermaster 正在构建一个用于海洋环境的分布式数据网络——在该环境中，获取可靠、实时的海况数据一直非常困难。该团队的执行能力以及市场对海况数据的高需求，使得我们决定带头投资这家公司。我们很自豪能够支持尼尔和他的团队，帮助他们利用这一机会与商业航运公司合作，推动业务发展。”
“The team’s execution and the strong demand for maritime data and awareness made this an investment we wanted to lead, and we’re proud to back Neil and the team as they scale to meet the opportunity with commercial fleets.”Quartermaster’s hardware, which it calls “SmartMast,” is a fairly straightforward setup.
Quartermaster 的核心硬件产品被称为“SmartMast”：它将摄像头和无线电设备集成到一个安装在船桅上的装置中，能够实时收集并传输海况数据。这一技术让政府、航运公司和保险公司能够获得比现有的自动识别系统（AIS）更全面的信息——因为自动识别系统目前主要只能提供船舶的位置信息而已。
The startup integrates cameras and radios into a package that’s mounted on a ship’s mast, and can capture and relay real-time maritime data. This allows governments, shipping companies and insurance providers to know far more than the current standard of AIS, or the “automatic identification system,” which is more or less just a series of location pings.
这些实时监测数据为 Quartermaster 所称的“地球上最大的‘盲点’”带来了诸多应用机会——从帮助船只避免碰撞，到更准确地了解航运线路的拥堵情况，再到救援迷路的船员，这些都有可能实现。Sobin 表示，每台 SmartMast 每天会收集数十吉字节的数据，该公司及其客户仍在不断探索这些数据的新用途。
This real-time awareness data creates all kinds of opportunities for what Quartermaster calls the “largest blind spot on Earth.”Everything from helping ships avoid collisions, to better understanding congestion in shipping lanes, to rescuing lost mariners is on the table. Sobin said each SmartMast records tens of gigabytes per day, and the startup and its customers are still finding new uses for the data being captured.
“在海洋人工智能领域，现有的技术成果并不多，因此我们能够拥有自己的数据来源，这让我们感到非常兴奋，”他说。“此外，还有很多显而易见的改进机会，我们今年夏天一直在努力实现这些改进，从而为客户提供实际的价值。” Sobin 还提到，该公司花费了大量时间与整个海洋行业的相关人士（而不仅仅是船舶所有者或运营商）进行沟通，以了解他们对这项技术的实际需求。
“There isn’t a lot of prior art in maritime AI, and so it’s been exciting to, one, have our own source of data,” he said. “But two, there’s just so much low hanging fruit that we’ve been knocking down this summer in what you can start to build and then deliver value for our customers on.”Sobin said the startup spends a lot of time engaging with people across the maritime industry — and not just vessel owners and operators — in order to find out what they want out of this technology.
“这个领域长期以来一直被忽视；全球的船员们都被技术所忽视。当他们遇到我们时，都非常兴奋，因为他们会说：‘哦，我有很多想法，让我们一起实现它们吧！’”他说。
“This is an ignored field. Mariners around the world have been ignored by technology for a really long time, and so when they meet us, they’re so excited, because they’re like: ‘Oh, I have so many ideas, let’s work on them’,” he said.
目前，已有超过 650 艘船舶在 25 个国家安装了 SmartMast 系统，该公司已向客户交付了 800 多台设备。这一增长的主要原因是 Quartermaster 即将开始将该系统部署到整个船队中，这表明早期采用者对该技术非常认可。
More than 650 vessels are now equipped with SmartMast in 25 countries, Sobin said, and the startup has shipped over 800 to customers. That gap is largely driven by the fact that Quartermaster is about to start deploying the SmartMast system to entire fleets, a sign that early adopters are really buying into the idea.
Sobin 表示，Quartermaster 必须加紧努力以满足不断增长的需求。该公司已经将生产能力提高了一倍，并持续优化产品设计，以便能够更快地生产出更多设备。
Quartermaster has had to hustle to keep up with demand, Sobin said. The startup has doubled its manufacturing capacity and continues to tweak its design so its hardware can be manufactured at a quicker clip.
“我们知道我们能够成功，而且有很多证据表明我们正在从事一项具有重大意义的事业，”Sobin 说。“那么，当你处于这样的位置时，你应该怎么做呢？就是加快步伐、加大投入，并坚持原有的发展战略。”
“We know we can do this, and we are seeing a lot of proof that tells us we’re really onto something massive and important in the world,” Sobin said. “So, what do you do when you have that position? You run faster and you move faster and you double down on that strategy.”