Watchtower Labs raises $35M seed to build AI decision tools for military logistics
What's the deal? Watchtower LabsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → emerged from stealth with $35 million in seed financing led by Shield CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and ConvictionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with participation from Founders Fund. The Seattle company builds AI-native applications that help military planners anticipate what happens next in an operation and weigh options before conditions change.
What's the endgame? Watchtower is starting with logistics — transport, spare parts, fuel, munitions, routes, and time. Its software models hundreds of possible futures against real-world constraints, generates executable options, and shows the assumptions and tradeoffs behind each.
Why now? Chief executive officer Akhil Iyer, a former Marine special operations officer, says planning staffs are overwhelmed. "These conditions can change faster than traditional planning processes can keep pace, forcing staff to continually reassess plans under increasing time pressure," he said.
The company was incubated within Shield Capital and co-founded by Iyer alongside Souren Aghajanyan and John Morman, both former Microsoft engineering leaders. In 2025 it partnered with the Naval Postgraduate School; in January 2026 the Defense Innovation Unit selected it under the Joint Sustainment Decision Tool program. The new funding will support hiring, more applications on its core platform, and continued testing as the technology extends beyond sustainment.
By the numbers: At $35 million, the round sits in roughly the top 1% of all US enterprise software seed rounds on record, a sample of more than 12,000 deals.
What could go wrong? Watchtower enters a crowded field. Onebrief raised $200 million in January for military planning software, and Smack Technologies raised $61 million in August for decision tools. Its relevance will depend less on the AI-native pitch than on whether the product earns operational use — and the DIU selection is an early test, not proof of broad deployment.
"Logistics is the backbone of our military's power, and yet we're stuck in the Stone Age," said Sarah Guo, founder of Conviction. Watchtower is betting that AI-era planning tools can close that gap.
Read more: prnewswire.com
Image credit: Watchtower Labs
