The Series B financing round led by the Blue Ocean fund, managed by leading sustainable investor SWEN Capital Partners, enables Norwegian hull cleaning specialist to scale up its operations on its mission to provide sustainable and competitive hull cleaning globally. Hull cleaning to remove biofouling is essential to increase vessel performance, save fuel and reduce emissions.

subdron GmbH, an innovative startup specializing in autonomous underwater navigation and data processing for advanced underwater inspections, announced today the successful raise of €1.3M in pre-seed funding. The investment round was co-led by xista science ventures, a renowned venture fund focused on scientific advancements, and Faber, from its Ocean / Climate Tech fund, with participation from esteemed investor Saber GmbH. The influx of capital will enable subdron GmbH to accelerate the development and deployment of its cutting-edge technology, poised to transform the way underwater structures are inspected for biofouling and structural integrity.

Bedrock, the leading vertically integrated seafloor data acquisition and distribution platform, has secured $25.5 million in its Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to date to $33.5M. The funds will be utilized to bring its unique data offering to the offshore wind market this year, and grow the company's proprietary unmanned autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) acquisition system. Bedrock has the potential to accelerate and reduce risks for the development of offshore wind energy projects, a key strategic interest supported by the Biden administration with significant support from the IRA (The Inflation Reduction Act).

Jacobs and The University of Manchester will create a new international research center to develop robotics and autonomous systems that will play a key role in climate response. The Centre for Robotic Autonomy in Demanding and Long-lasting Environments (CRADLE) will research new technologies for challenging and heavily regulated industry sectors such as space, nuclear decommissioning, energy generation and urban infrastructure.

HydroSurv has won funding from Innovate UK to continue working with the University of Plymouth to enhance its technique of using Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs) to map seagrass coverage on the seabed.

The Made Smarter Innovation Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, has launched a new £6 million late-stage robotics and automation industrialisation funding call for collaborative research and development. Projects can seek grant funding for project values up to £4 million.

Defense technology company Anduril Industries today announced $1.48 billion in Series E funding, valuing the company at $8.48 billion, nearly doubling the company’s previous valuation in June 2021. The new funding will enable Anduril to accelerate research and development to bring new, cutting edge, autonomous defense capabilities to the market and continue to mature and scale its current business lines with the US Department of Defense as well as US allies and partners.

Advanced Navigation, a developer of AI robotics and navigation technology, and KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced the signing of definitive agreements under which KKR will lead a AUD 108 million (USD 68 million) Series B funding round in the Company. The funding round includes participation from new investors such as deep learning venture firm AI Capital and existing investors, including Main Sequence, the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull AC, In-Q-Tel, and Our Innovation Fund, bringing Advanced Navigation’s total amount raised to more than AUD 134 million (USD 85 million).

Jaia Robotics, Inc., an aquatic robotics company specializing in the development of micro-sized, high-speed, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) announced today that it has raised over $1 million in seed funding.

Vattenfall has been awarded £9.3m in innovation funding from the ‘Net Zero Innovation Portfolio Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2’ fund by the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The funding will be used to develop the world’s first hydrogen-producing offshore wind turbine, with the electrolyser sited directly onto an existing operational turbine.

Schmidt Marine Technology Partners will offer up to $3.5 million in funding annually to entrepreneurs and others developing new technologies that increase the sustainability of fisheries around the world. The effort is also being funded by two anonymous philanthropic groups.

Subsea 7 and technology partner FLASC B.V., are pleased to be awarded a grant from the UK government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for £471,760, to further develop an innovative offshore energy storage system. Funding has been awarded as part of the Longer Duration Energy Storage (LODES) Competition. The competition recognises the transition to increasing wind generated renewable energy, which presents growing opportunities for storage systems that support a secure, flexible and reliable electrical power supply.

A new round of funding has strengthened hydroacoustic technology specialist Subsea Europe Service GmbH’s commitment to taking autonomous technologies to the next level for marine survey applications. The investment boosts the company’s unique approach which focuses on the integration of new generation smart, A.I. and machine learning enabled hydroacoustic systems with diverse survey platforms including Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Unmanned Surface Vessels, and crewed vessels as survey motherships.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $25 million in funding to support increased research, development, and demonstration of technologies that harness wave power to create electricity. The funding supports eight projects that will make up the first round of open-water testing at the PacWave South test site off the Oregon coast. These awards will strengthen wave energy technologies to accelerate their commercial viability and deploy them at scale to help decarbonize the grid and reach President Biden’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Aberdeen-based Innovo Engineering and Construction has secured £10,000 funding from the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) in conjunction with Strathclyde University. The funding will support a research and development (R&D) project for Innovo’s innovative autonomous eco-robotic wind, solar and hydrogen fuel cell powered surface vessel – Oceandrone.

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has secured funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), which will take robot submarine ‘Boaty McBoatface’ around end-of-life oil and gas fields. The Autonomous Techniques for infraStructure Ecological Assessment (AT-SEA) project, led by the NOC will trial the concept of using submarines like Boaty for high-tech, low-impact monitoring to pick up any potential environmental impacts at these sites.

Welaptega, an Ashtead Technology company, has launched a $500,000 (USD) initiative to develop a product to enable digital twinning of underwater infrastructure without the need for offshore personnel.

A joint initiative between Japan and Scotland, formed two years ago, will see almost £21million invested into underwater technology projects to promote economic growth opportunities in the Blue Economy.