Armada Raises More Than $55M to Bridge the Digital Divide

Armada, an edge computing pioneer redefining the future of connectivity, compute and AI, today exited stealth. The company marks this milestone with a significant capital raise exceeding $55M, led by Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Shield Capital and 8090 Industries, with participation from Felicis, Contrary, Valor Equity Partners, Marlinspike, 137 Ventures, Koch Real Estate Investments, 8VC and a cohort of other strategic investors. This funding will propel Armada forward in its mission to bridge the global digital divide, empowering businesses and communities to leverage all of their data, regardless of where it's generated. Armada is dedicated to unlocking the potential of generative AI, edge computing and predictive models on a global scale.

Recent revolutions in IoT, AI and infrastructure have created a massive opportunity for an intelligent edge computing platform. With Gartner estimating that by 2025, 75% of enterprise data will originate at the edge, there's a clear demand for a decentralized approach to empower the fourth industrial revolution. Armada provides a full-stack infrastructure solution, deployable on both on-premise and cloud infrastructures, to deliver optimal edge computing and cutting edge satellite internet connectivity to the world's most remote regions. This empowers companies to harness the power of generative AI and predictive models where they are most needed, enabling a range of industries ? from utilities and infrastructure to military and mining ? to dramatically enhance their real-time processing, analysis and decision-making capabilities, right where their data resides.

"Today, AI ? including large language models, multimodal AI and predictive models ? is revolutionizing every facet of our lives and work, but not everyone has the same opportunity. What's truly astounding is that vast swaths of the world still lack basic internet access, much less the ability to derive tangible value from their data," said Armada co-founder and CEO Dan Wright. "Armada's mission is to bridge the digital divide once and for all, giving our customers the ability to solve their biggest problems."

"Armada plays a vital role in addressing the growing compute needs of industrial IoT for manufacturing and industrial applications, a sector that has been vastly underserved but is crucial in today's landscape," said Justin Wilson, Managing Director at Koch Real Estate Investments.

Introducing the Armada Commander Platform

The Commander Platform is the cornerstone of Armada's ecosystem, serving as the single portal for observability and management of all edge operations. Central and field operations teams can purchase and control Starlink terminals, deploy and manage Galleon datacenters, unify IoT devices and access the Armada marketplace for next-generation AI applications, the building blocks for custom end-to-end edge solutions.

Introducing Armada Connect

Armada Connect serves as the dedicated operating system for Starlink and all future IoT devices. With Armada Connect, businesses gain unprecedented control over their entire fleet of Starlink deployments, encompassing enterprise-grade capabilities for observability, management and billing of all Starlink assets. The system is bolstered by the Commander AI Assistant, which offers real-time contextual alerts, diagnostics and troubleshooting support, ensuring smooth operations and quick resolution of any issues. This is complemented by access to the Armada Marketplace, which offers a curated selection of certified connectivity and IoT assets, enhancing the overall functionality and scope of Armada Connect.

Introducing Armada Edge

Armada Edge is the Global Command Center for Galleons, connectivity, AI applications and IoT assets. Armada's Galleons are ruggedized, mobile and modular data centers delivering significant compute and storage capacity, coupled with resilient connectivity. Designed to support multiple data-processing and AI applications at the edge, they are customized with adequate storage, memory and high-performance computing components such as GPUs, FPGAs and multicore CPUs. They seamlessly interface with local area networks and on-site assets, providing connectivity to internet-based resources via Starlink, fiber, 5G or other network infrastructures. Galleons are self-contained units, enabling rapid deployment worldwide.

Introducing Armada EdgeAI

Armada EdgeAI encompasses a spectrum of generative AI, multimodal AI and real-time machine learning capabilities, tailored for designing industry-specific applications. These adaptable applications are accessible in the cloud and can be optimized for deployment on dedicated edge hardware, whether Galleons or on-premises infrastructure. EdgeAI capabilities cater to a range of industrial applications, such as real-time visual inspection, assistive agents, predictive maintenance, robotics, autonomous vehicle operations, emissions monitoring and beyond.

"There is an impossibly large volume of data created at the edge, and regrettably, virtually nothing is done with it," said Armada co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Jon Runyan. "We're exceptionally fortunate to have the best talent in the world on our team, as well as the support of our incredible syndicate of investors and advisors. We are also thrilled to add Trae Stephens of Founders Fund and Anduril, Kerem Ozmen of 8090 Industries and our founding CTO, Pradeep Nair, to our Board of Directors as we tackle this enormous opportunity."

Armada is swiftly advancing with certifications and establishing partnerships to realize their ambitious vision of extending AI and remote connectivity to every corner of the world. The company has also created a marketplace, enabling partners to develop and distribute innovative applications, and has achieved SOC2 and ISO 27001 compliance.

"Armada has a best-in-class team building at the edge of what's technically possible right now," said Trae Stephens, Partner at Founders Fund and co-founder and Chairman at Anduril. "Armada's edge computing platform will fundamentally reshape entire industries."

To learn more about Armada or if interested in joining the team, please visit www.armada.ai.

About Armada

Armada builds and operates a resilient, secure and scalable infrastructure, with a matching software component enabling a single control plane to easily manage and optimize data. The company's mission is to enable connection and distribute the benefits inherent therein ? anywhere in the world. Learn more at www.armada.ai.