Watchtower Labs emerged from stealth on October 21, 2026, with US$35 million in Seed financing led by Shield Capital and Conviction, with participation from Founders Fund. The Seattle-based company builds AI-native applications that help military leaders anticipate what happens next, evaluate options, and make decisions while there is still time to act. Its initial focus is logistics planning, where transport, spare parts, fuel, munitions, routes, and time can determine whether a mission is executable.
The Challenge of Modern Military Planning
Traditional planning processes cannot keep pace with conditions that change faster than staff can manage under pressure. Logistics planners must continually reassess transport, spare parts, fuel, munitions, routes, and time to maintain operational feasibility. Watchtower was founded on the vision that artificial intelligence could improve decision-making for these consequential choices.
AI-Native Decision Environment
The platform combines simulation, optimization, and AI to model hundreds of possible futures against real-world operational constraints. It generates executable courses of action and shows the assumptions and tradeoffs behind each option. Planners can ask questions in plain language, while decision makers remain in control of what happens next.
Founding Team and Company Origins
Watchtower was incubated within Shield Capital and co-founded by Akhil Iyer, Souren Aghajanyan, and John Morman. Iyer is a former Marine special operations officer and Shield Capital investor, while Aghajanyan and Morman are seasoned Microsoft engineering leaders who spent years building large-scale distributed systems. This combination brings together engineers who have built systems at scale with operators who have lived the planning problems the company is designed to solve.
Early Validation from Defense Institutions
In 2025, Watchtower Labs partnered with the Naval Postgraduate School to inform the system's development through operations research, operationally relevant data, and collaboration with defense practitioners. In January 2026, the Defense Innovation Unit selected Watchtower under the Joint Sustainment Decision Tool program. That program is designed to support operational and joint commands with advanced decision-support capabilities.
Investor Perspectives on National Security AI
Raj Shah, Founder and Managing Partner at Shield Capital and Chairman of Watchtower Labs, said an entire generation of companies is being built from scratch on what AI can now do against a challenging geopolitical environment. He noted that Shield Capital brings frontier technology together with teams that understand the mission. Sarah Guo, Founder of Conviction, added that AI is accelerating decision-making in the commercial realm and will be decisive for national security.
Use of Funds and Expansion Roadmap
The US$35 million Seed round will support team growth, an expanding set of applications built on the company's core platform, and continued testing and deployment. The financing will help the technology extend beyond sustainment into broader operational planning. Watchtower is targeting high-stakes operations where conditions change quickly, resources are constrained, and plans must adapt.
Broader Implications for Defense Planning
Watchtower models real-world constraints and stress-tests executable courses of action across hundreds of possible futures. This approach gives planners a clearer view of assumptions and tradeoffs before a command commits to a course of action. The company's work reflects a broader shift toward AI-native tools that support operational decision-making under time pressure.
Watchtower Labs enters the defense technology market at a time when military planners face faster-changing conditions and greater pressure to reassess plans quickly. Its AI-native decision environment aims to make logistics and operational planning more responsive, transparent, and executable. By combining simulation, optimization, and AI with defense practitioner input, the company seeks to give commanders and planners the ability to understand what happens next and choose a course of action while there is still time to act.