American start-up Armada, that provides Edge Data Center solutions, has announced that is has raised US$ 55 Million for developing portable Galleon data centers that are part of its Commander Platform. These data centers will be connected via Starlink, and can therefore be deployed in remote areas.
In a statement, the company said, “Our intelligent edge computing platform, Commander, allows customers to process the massive amounts of data they produce at the edge to derive insights and responses and manage their connectivity and other IoT assets. Our self-contained hardware solution, Galleon, takes that capability one step further by combining Commander with a ruggedized mobile data center that can be deployed anywhere in the world.”
It went on to say, “Together, these tools allow companies to leverage the power of large language models, multimodal AI and predictive models where they’re needed most – at the edge. We’re excited to bridge the digital divide and give our customers the power to process, analyze and act on the data they create, right where it resides – allowing them to extract key insights faster, foresee possible hazards earlier and comply with international data residency requirements with ease.”
The company revealed that is raised its funding from 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 others.
Armada co-founder and CEO Dan Wright, said, “Armada’s mission is to bridge the digital divide once and for all, giving our customers the ability to solve their biggest problems.”
The Armada ecosystem
Armada’s Galleon data centers are “ruggedized, mobile and modular data centers delivering significant compute and storage capacity, coupled with resilient connectivity.” The company says that Galleons are 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.” It further said that Galleons “seamlessly interface with local area networks and on-site assets, providing connectivity to internet-based resources via Starlink, fiber, 5G or other network infrastructures, and that “Galleons are self-contained units, enabling rapid deployment worldwide.”
This is significant given how computing solutions are often required in remote and hostile terrains. In a blog, Armada acknowledged this digital divide saying, “At this moment, huge areas of the globe are still not covered by basic internet access, much less the level of infrastructure that would allow them to get insights from their data. This includes remote areas where the key industries that humanity depends on — like oil and gas, mining, logistics and defense — operate. These industrial sites are often thousands of miles away from their cloud servers. They need to send the data they collect across oceans and borders, and sometimes wait months to get any semblance of value from it.”
Armada Edge is the Global Command Center for Galleons, connectivity, AI applications and IoT assets.
How will this work?
According to the company, its 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.”
The company has developed Armada Connect to serve as the dedicated operating system for Starlink and all future IoT devices. It further explained, “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.”
Armada has also developed Armada EdgeAI which “encompasses a spectrum of generative AI, multimodal AI and real-time machine learning capabilities, tailored for designing industry-specific applications.” The company says that these “adaptable applications are accessible in the cloud and can be optimized for deployment on dedicated edge hardware, whether Galleons or on-premises infrastructure.”