S
Sofar Ocean
Real-time ocean intelligence platform for maritime shipping.
About Sofar Ocean
Sofar Ocean is an ocean intelligence platform that provides real-time data and voyage optimization for the maritime industry. Founded in 2012 by Tim Janssen (CEO) and Evan Shapiro (CTO), the San Francisco-based company aims to make ocean data more accessible to support science, industry, and environmental sustainability. Janssen, who holds a PhD, and Shapiro have led the company through multiple funding rounds, securing a total of $75.2 million to expand its offerings.
The company operates the world's largest privately-owned network of ocean sensors. This network consists of thousands of solar-powered, basketball-sized buoys called "Spotters" deployed across all five oceans. The Spotter network gathers over 1.5 million real-time observations of waves, wind, temperature, and currents each day. This data is used to generate marine weather forecasts that are significantly more accurate than traditional models.
Sofar Ocean's business model is primarily B2B SaaS, offering subscription-based services. Its main commercial product is Wayfinder, a voyage optimization platform. Wayfinder utilizes the company's high-accuracy weather forecasts and vessel performance models to provide maritime shipping clients with optimized routes. This service helps shipping companies save time and fuel, thereby reducing costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Clients include major shipping lines like Berge Bulk, Dorian LPG, and MOL Group. Beyond the maritime sector, Sofar's data and hardware are used by hundreds of climate scientists, research institutions, and government agencies for applications such as monitoring marine ecosystems and improving climate models. Researchers can purchase Spotter buoys to collect data and integrate it with Sofar's global network.
Source: Dealroom company dataAt a glance
- Status
- Operational
- Founded
- 2016
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, United States
- Employees
- 106
- Open positions
- 2
- Dealroom signal
- 65.5/100
- Sector
- Semiconductors, Weather Forecasting, Drones, Sustainable Development Goals, Sensor Tech, Space Tech, Sensors, Climate Tech, Space Vehicles Components and Payloads, Semiconductors for Space, Space Upstream, Blue Economy, Ocean Data
- Technology
- IoT InternetOfThings
- Business model
- SaaS
Knowledge graph
More headlines
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LATE VCOther financing | Aug 2022 | $39M | $157M | Undisclosed | ↗ |
| SERIES BOther financing | Nov 2021 | $39M | $156M | Union Square Ventures · Foundry | ↗ |
Financials
Revenue, earnings and other financial measures where available. Years marked “E” are estimates.
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for Sofar Ocean is 65K monthly website visits, up 91.2% over the last three months. Sofar Ocean's team declined 5.4% over the past year.
Open positions
Similar companies
Company identity and context are open; selected comparison metrics preview what is available on the platform.
Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Series A6 investors entered at this stage
True Ventures
Jovono
Craft Ventures
Peter Rive
Union Square Ventures
Foundry
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about Sofar Ocean on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
See Sofar Ocean’s full profile on Dealroom
Request a free trial to see the complete deal history, financials, people graph and growth signals.
Takes under a minute. Already use Dealroom? Log in.