Istari Digital: Funding Rounds, Investors & Leadership

About Istari Digital

Istari Digital sells a platform that connects engineering data spread across different tools, companies and security levels, without moving the data into one place. Its customers work in the air, sea, space, energy and transportation sectors.

Founded in 2022, the company is based in Arlington, Virginia. Co-founder and CEO Will Roper is a former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. In February 2026 the Air Force awarded it $8.6 million for Industry Øne, a program that links 15 defense contractors and research labs.

Funding Rounds (SEC Form D)

First sale	Filed with SEC	Amount sold	Investors	Avg. check	Terms	Filing
Jul 15, 2026	Jul 24, 2026	$22,649,970of $40.0M target	3	$7.5M	EquityRule 506(b)	Form D ↗
Dec 20, 2024	Jan 10, 2025	$27,050,000of $35.5M target	11	$2.4M	EquityRule 506(b)	Form D ↗
Total, two offerings		$49,699,970

First sale is the date the first investor in the offering committed to invest. Companies must file Form D within 15 days of that date, so filing dates run later.

Rounds announced by Istari Digital

What the company said publicly about its funding. Announced amounts can differ from Form D figures: an announcement can combine several closings, and some money is raised without a Form D.

Announced	Round	Amount	Investors	Source
Feb 13, 2023	Seed	$13M	Eric Schmidt	Press release ↗

Why Investors Backed Istari Digital

Investors backed Istari Digital because the Pentagon wants weapons designed, tested and even certified in software before anyone builds them, and Istari sells the plumbing for that. Its platform links engineering models and data held by different companies and security levels without moving the data into one place. Will Roper, who ran Air Force acquisition from 2018 to 2021, leads it. The Air Force is already paying Istari to connect 15 major defense suppliers in a program called Industry Øne.

The problem it targets

Istari's view is that defense programs rely on thousands of suppliers that use incompatible tools behind separate firewalls. People can email files across those boundaries, but they cannot run shared workflows securely and with an audit trail. "Today, experts must act as human APIs in a world moving at digital speeds," Roper said in May 2026.

What the product does

Istari's platform connects engineering tools, teams and data across companies and security levels, while each owner keeps its data. In February 2026 it unveiled Ground, a data-sharing layer built for aerospace, Aerospace America reported. Roper's pitch is that hardware can now be designed, tested and improved digitally, the way software is.

Progress so far

The Department of the Air Force awarded Istari $8.6 million in February 2026 to set up Industry Øne. By May, the Air Force had contracted 15 organizations to take part, among them Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, GE Aerospace, Blue Origin, MITRE and MIT Lincoln Laboratory. In March 2026 the Department of War also gave Istari a prototype agreement to build a mission engineering test bed, ExecutiveGov reported.

Who backs it

Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt backed Istari's $13 million seed round, announced in February 2023. "Will and the Istari team are bringing internet-type usability to models and simulations," Schmidt said. Two investors sit on the board: Joe Horowitz, managing general partner of Icon Ventures, and Tom Lehrman, managing partner of Teamworthy Ventures.

We wrote this summary from public statements by Istari Digital and its investors. It is not investment advice.