/Companies

Seasats

Techstars '21

San Diego, US · Founded 2020 · 71 employees on LinkedIn · 12 known investors

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SeaSats develops autonomous maritime vessels ("Lightfish" and "Quickfish") for ocean surveillance, intelligence gathering, and domain awareness. The company serves defense, government, and maritime security customers requiring real-time monitoring of coastal and open ocean areas.

Also known as SeaSats

Founders & leadership

Seasats was founded in 2020 by Mike Flanigan.

MF
Mike FlaniganCo-Founder & CEO

Investors · 12

Shield Capitallisted by Shield CapitalSan Francisco

How we know: Shield Capital's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · funding news · finance.yahoo.com · the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

Techstarslisted by TechstarsBoulder · $220K

How we know: the Techstars portfolio · funding news · finance.yahoo.com · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$40M disclosed across 2 of 4 rounds · 2025–2026

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Seasats designs and produces uncrewed surface vessels intended to operate as "satellites at sea," collecting maritime data for domain awareness, intelligence and surveillance, and subsea mapping. The company markets three platforms differentiated by endurance, speed and payload capacity: Lightfish, its flagship solar-electric vessel with hybrid reserve power rated for missions of up to six months and roughly 8,000 nautical miles; Quickfish, a faster tactical platform capable of 35+ knots with about one month of endurance and 450 lbs of payload; and Heavyfish, a larger long-range platform with 9,000 lbs displacement and 1,000 lbs payload capacity, listed with an expected launch in 2026.

The vessels are built around a modular payload system with a stated library of more than 50 payloads that can be swapped in minutes, and the company says customer-specific payloads can be integrated in hours or days. Described capabilities include collision avoidance, navigation under GPS denial, redundant satellite communications, self-righting hulls rated to sea state 6, real-time alerting to operators by phone or email, and integration with Group 1 and Group 2 uncrewed aerial systems that can be launched from the vessels. Lightfish is small enough to fit in a pickup truck or trailer, can be deployed by one or two people by hand, and is transportable by commercial or military aircraft; the company states operators require three to five days of training rather than specialist qualifications.

Application areas cited by the company span commercial, defense and scientific missions, including tracking of "ghost fleet" vessels, hurricane monitoring, detection of smuggling and illegal fishing, monitoring of harmful algal blooms, submarine signal detection, pipeline status inspection, hydrographic survey, and perimeter escort or interception around vessels and infrastructure using Quickfish.

Business model

Seasats sells autonomous surface vessels and associated modular payloads, and also offers data-as-a-service alongside vessel sales. The company emphasises affordability and production at scale, with immediate stock availability.

Vessel and payload sales, with data-as-a-service offered as an additional option.

Latest developments

Heavyfish, the company's largest platform, is listed with an expected launch date of 2026.

▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography

Market position

Seasats markets a family of three uncrewed surface vessel classes spanning endurance, tactical-speed and heavy-payload roles, and states its systems have been used in commercial, defense and science operations.

Positioning centres on small size and portability (hand deployment by one to two people, air-shippable, pickup-truck transportable), short operator training cycles, low unit cost intended to permit deployment at scale and networked ocean-wide coverage, and a modular payload system with rapid payload integration.

Technology

Solar-electric propulsion with hybrid fuel reserve, ultra-efficient composite hulls with weighted self-righting keels, electric motor pods, marinized solar panels, AIS/GPS and satellite communications with redundant links, GPS-denied navigation, collision avoidance, a bolt-on/plug-in modular payload architecture, C2 interoperability, and UAS launch integration.

Go-to-market

Defense, commercial and scientific maritime users conducting surveillance, security patrol, survey, research and infrastructure monitoring missions.

Geography

Headquartered in San Diego, United States; vessels are marketed as shippable worldwide by commercial or military aircraft, with satellite communications for global reach.

Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported
Available payload library sizeJan 202550+ payloads
Heavyfish payload capacityJan 20251,000 lbs
Heavyfish top speedJan 202512 knots
Heavyfish weightJan 20259,000 lbs
Lightfish enduranceJan 2025Up to 6 months
Lightfish payload capacityJan 202566 lbs
Lightfish rangeJan 20258,000 nautical miles
Lightfish top speedJan 20255 knots
Lightfish weightJan 2025305 lbs
Quickfish enduranceJan 2025Up to 1 month
Quickfish payload capacityJan 2025450 lbs
Quickfish top speedJan 202535+ kts
Quickfish weightJan 20251,450 lbs

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Related companies · 2

Companies working in the same space as Seasats.

Non-dilutive funding · 1 SBIR/STTR award

Federal grants — no equity taken
AgencyPhaseYearAmount
National Science FoundationPhase I2022$256K

Source: SBIR.gov award data (U.S. Small Business Administration). SBIR/STTR awards are competitive federal R&D grants and contracts — non-dilutive capital alongside any venture rounds above.

In the news

▸Research sources · 1

primary sources listed

1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Seasats do?
Seasats builds small, modular autonomous surface vessels for maritime domain awareness, security and ocean survey missions.
Who founded Seasats?
Seasats was founded by Mike Flanigan in 2020.
Who are Seasats's investors?
Seasats's investors include Dns Capital, Gaingels, Hemisphere Ventures LLC, IceNine, Konvoy Ventures, Monozukuri Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, Shield Capital and 4 more.
How much funding has Seasats raised?
Seasats has disclosed $40M raised across 2 of its 4 known rounds.
Where is Seasats headquartered?
Seasats is headquartered in San Diego, US.