Sequoia Scientific, Inc.

Sequoia Scientific, Inc., a for-profit manufacturer of oceanographic and water-quality instrumentation based in Bellevue, Washington, operates exclusively as a prime contractor delivering specialized scientific sensors and analytical instruments to federal research agencies. The company competes as a small business across full-and-open and total-small-business-set-aside procurements, with no subcontract footprint and no participation in government-wide contract vehicles or BPAs beyond its seat on the Federal Supply Schedule GS07F0334U (23 task orders, $507 thousand combined potential value).

Sequoia Scientific's concrete product portfolio centers on submersible optical and acoustic instruments for measuring water properties and particle dynamics. Representative work includes a $849 thousand NASA Phase II SBIR for development of an in-situ hyperspectral transmissometer for ocean inherent optical property closure (awarded August 2025, completion August 2027); a $224 thousand Shared Services Center SBIR Phase I for a polarized hyperspectral volume scattering function sensor (awarded September 2026, completion March 2027); a $149 thousand NASA SBIR Phase I for hyperspectral transmissometer development (awarded August 2024, completion February 2025); and a $127 thousand EPA Region 5 purchase order for a Hyper-BB hyperspectral scatter system and LISST-200X particle size analyzer deployed aboard the research vessel Lake Guardian (August 2026). The company also supplies specialized instruments on a sole-source basis: a $97 thousand NASA delivery of a Hyper-BB submersible multispectral backscatter instrument (February 2024), a $70 thousand NASA Hyper-A submersible hyperspectral absorption unit (February 2024), and a $144 thousand NASA LISST-VSF volume scattering function instrument (December 2022). Maintenance and repair services for company-manufactured sensors—such as $3,090 in calibration services for LISST-ABS acoustic backscatter sensors at Bureau of Reclamation facilities—round out the service offering.

Customer concentration splits between research and science agencies. NASA Shared Services Center accounts for 18 awards and $4.4 million in combined potential value, anchoring the vendor's dollar base. The Office of Naval Research places 23 awards ($1.6 million combined potential value) and the U.S. Geological Survey places 21 awards ($627 thousand), together accounting for 59% of recent awards by count but only 38% by dollars—indicating smaller average award sizes with those customers compared to NASA. The Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Naval Sea Systems Command, and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement round out the active customer set across 31 distinct federal agencies. SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards dominate the innovation pipeline, with research and development in physical and engineering sciences (20 awards) and instruments manufacturing for industrial process variables (31 awards) representing the top NAICS categories.

Recent activity shows consistent low-volume execution: two awards in 2026, four in 2025, four in 2024, three in 2023, and five in 2022, for a combined potential value of $9.4 million across 162 total awards since 1995. The company obligated $15 million against that ceiling, indicating realities of customer invoicing and completion beyond stated contract ceilings. Only two awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months (combined potential value $1.1 million), minimizing near-term recompete exposure. The vendor holds an NSF STTR Phase I grant ($254 thousand, January–December 2022) for bio-optical sensor development to detect sinking marine particles, positioning the company in federal research-commercialization pipelines alongside its direct-sales instrument business.

Performs research in ocean sciences and manufactures instrumentation & software for

marine & aquatic scientists.