Quartermaster is an Arlington, Virginia maritime intelligence company turning ordinary working ships into a distributed sensing network. Its weather-hardened SmartMast hardware - cameras, radios, satellite links and onboard AI - mounts to vessel masts and streams real-time HD video, geolocation and threat alerts back to a central analytics platform. The result is a live, continuously updated picture of global ocean activity that does not depend on the easily spoofed AIS transponders ships can simply switch off. Backed by a $43M Series A co-led by First Round Capital and Quiet Capital, Quartermaster already runs on more than 600 vessels across 25 countries.
John Keh is the Founder and CEO of Valtec, a San Diego-based maritime AI and drone company that deploys autonomous VTOL systems on commercial fishing vessels to detect tuna schools in real time. A UC Berkeley alumnus and former US Air Force geospatial intelligence analyst with 250+ missions across South Korea and the Middle East, Keh pivoted from food delivery (3rd employee at Caviar, Uber Eats courier intelligence lead) to maritime defense after four years building startups in Taiwan. Valtec raised a $2M pre-seed round in March 2025 backed by SparkLabs Taiwan, Wavemaker VC, DRONE FUND, Guitar Hero founder Kai Huang, and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, with the company's Larus VTOL drone and Fulcan AI platform now deployed on 40+ fishing vessels across Taiwan and the Philippines.