A firefighter-turned-founder just secured $13.5 million to solve a problem he lived through for over a decade. Garage, the Y Combinator-backed marketplace for public safety equipment, announced its Series A funding led by Infinity Ventures to transform how fire departments buy and sell critical equipment nationwide.
Garage founder Martin Hunt spent 11 years as a firefighter watching small communities struggle with a broken equipment market. Fire departments were stuck hunting through Facebook groups and classified ads for $100,000+ firetrucks, while cities had no efficient way to sell old equipment nationwide. Hunt's solution just landed $13.5 million in Series A funding from Infinity Ventures to fix the entire ecosystem.
The 26-year-old CEO's eureka moment came during a 2023 conversation with a fellow firefighter. "When I couldn't find anything, it became clear that there was a need for a streamlined, nationwide marketplace for expensive, hard-to-move equipment like firetrucks," Hunt told TechCrunch. "A few months later, I left my job with no product or funding to build the solution."
Partnering with college friend Alaz Sengul as CTO, Hunt launched Garage through Y Combinator's Winter 24 cohort. The marketplace automates the entire procurement process that used to bog down fire departments in paperwork and logistics nightmares. "Many of our customers are civil servants, firefighters, fleet managers, and public work directors who don't have the administrative bandwidth to deal with endless paperwork and logistical coordination," Hunt explained to TechCrunch.
Garage's AI-powered platform handles everything from equipment appraisals to freight coordination. Sellers upload their gear, get instant AI valuations, then list items for auction or immediate purchase. Buyers request quotes for warranties and shipping directly through the platform, while coordinates delivery using AI logistics tools. The security layer proves crucial given transaction sizes often exceed $100,000.
