YC-backed Garage raises $13.5M to help firefighters buy equipment

From the age of 15, a firefighter, Martin Hunt, now 26, knew the pain of the small community with the hard budget of buying fire equipment.

One day in 2023, he saw himself chatting with one of his firefighter friends who would ask if Hunt knows about better ways.

Hunt told TechCrunch, “When I found nothing, it became clear that a flowing, hard-to-love equipment, needed a flowing, nationwide marketplace,” Hunt told TechCrunch. “After a few months, I left my job without any product or fund to create the solution.”

He tied up and launched a pair of college friend Alaj Sengul GarageA marketplace that sells specially used specialized equipment to protect local government and public safety. It automatically automatically used as a manual process, such as evaluation, freight quotes and a solution to payment.

“Many of our subscribers are civil servants, firefighters, fleet directors and public work directors who do not have administrative bandwidth to deal with endless papers and logistical coordination,” Hunt, who, said the CEO of this company. The Sengul acts as CTO.

The company announced on Wednesday a $ 13.5 million series led by Infinity Venture.

At this point, Hunt said, the fire categories depend on the online auction space like goats, Facebook groups, or even, still, if they want to buy a previously owned gear, if they want to find the equipment.

At the same time, cities are trying to sell old equipment to raise money for new supply. Hunt said that many communities could not sell nationwide, because selling a fire truck to the buyer thousands of miles away was often proved logically hard.

Garage’s nationwide product platform works: Vendors use garage AI equipment to evaluate their equipment. Then, it list the product, auction or “Buy now” format. Buyers message the seller, asks for instant quotes for things like warranty and fret. After meeting an agreement, the garage manages the back -end and uses the AI to help adjust the delivery.

Hunt added, “The safety of this size is often more than $ 5, a major concern, especially with the number of scammers hidden on platforms like Facebook Marketplace,” Hunt.

He described the fundraising process as “catalyst” and said that he and Sengul met with their main investors after participating in the Winter 24 Kohort of the Waisi. The founders raised a $ 4.5 million seed round by the initial capital, then introduced to the Infinity Venture.

Others in the round include benchstrenth, weapinder Ventures and FJ labs. The company has collected $ 18 million to today.

The fresh capital will be used to expand the team and the marketplace. Hunt said that this product is currently used in all 50 states, named as clients like Berlington, Vermont and South Charleston, West Virginia.

Hunt said, “We hope that improvement of access to affordable, mission-critical equipment improves public protection in those fields that are most needed, when funds allowed our local community to stay in their hands,” Hunt said.

This story was updated to reflect where Barlington was.