Autonomous robots beneath the waves – why we invested in Nautica Technologies
Autonomous robots beneath the waves – why we invested in Nautica Technologies
The shipping industry is a cornerstone of global trade, and one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet beneath the waterline lies a surprisingly stubborn source of inefficiency: marine biofouling. As algae, barnacles, and other organisms accumulate on a ship’s hull, drag increases, fuel efficiency plummets, and emissions surge.
Nautica Technologies is taking this on, with a radical rethink of how hull maintenance should work.
🤖 A High-Impact Problem, a Robotic Solution
Today’s hull cleaning is reactive, intermittent, and labor-intensive. Nautica flips the script. Their autonomous swarm robots proactively clean ship hulls during standard port calls, preventing biofouling before it takes hold. This doesn’t just save time; it unlocks major cost and emissions savings. Unlike diver-based or port-bound cleaning methods, Nautica’s system runs consistently and autonomously. No delays, no downtime.
🌊 A Market on the Move
The timing couldn’t be better. New regulatory pressure, volatile fuel costs, and rising environmental accountability are forcing the shipping industry to rethink legacy practices. Biofouling is not just a nuisance, it’s a EUR 70bn drag on global efficiency. With more than 100,000 commercial vessels worldwide, the need for scalable, predictive, and low-friction solutions is urgent.
📡 AI Meets Maritime Infrastructure
At its core, Nautica is a robotics company, but with a clear path to becoming a maritime data infrastructure play. Their hull intelligence platform uses data gathered during cleaning sessions to build digital twins, enabling predictive maintenance and continuous monitoring. It's the beginning of a full-stack software layer for fleet health, compliance, and performance optimization, an emerging multibillion-dollar market on its own.
🚢 Early Validation, Strong Momentum
Since inception, Nautica has successfully tested its technology on vessels in live environments and secured multiple pilot projects with global operators. Industry interest is high, and the company is already seeing strong traction across geographies and fleet types.
🧠 A World-Class Founding Team
Nautica is led by Cedric Portmann (CEO) and Dr. Mina Kamel (CTO), who bring deep robotics expertise from ETH Zurich, EPFL, and previous ventures in autonomous systems. Their complementary strengths, engineering depth, product rigor, and industry engagement give us strong conviction in their ability to execute across both hardware and software layers.
We're proud to lead this round, alongside committed angel investors and co-investors like Rethink Ventures, Partners in Clime and Prequel Ventures. Nautica’s vision is bold: to make autonomous hull maintenance a new maritime standard, and to decarbonize global shipping, one clean hull at a time.
This is robotics with ripple effects. And the robots are already in the water.
The shipping industry is a cornerstone of global trade, and one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet beneath the waterline lies a surprisingly stubborn source of inefficiency: marine biofouling. As algae, barnacles, and other organisms accumulate on a ship’s hull, drag increases, fuel efficiency plummets, and emissions surge.
Nautica Technologies is taking this on, with a radical rethink of how hull maintenance should work.
🤖 A High-Impact Problem, a Robotic Solution
Today’s hull cleaning is reactive, intermittent, and labor-intensive. Nautica flips the script. Their autonomous swarm robots proactively clean ship hulls during standard port calls, preventing biofouling before it takes hold. This doesn’t just save time; it unlocks major cost and emissions savings. Unlike diver-based or port-bound cleaning methods, Nautica’s system runs consistently and autonomously. No delays, no downtime.
🌊 A Market on the Move
The timing couldn’t be better. New regulatory pressure, volatile fuel costs, and rising environmental accountability are forcing the shipping industry to rethink legacy practices. Biofouling is not just a nuisance, it’s a EUR 70bn drag on global efficiency. With more than 100,000 commercial vessels worldwide, the need for scalable, predictive, and low-friction solutions is urgent.
📡 AI Meets Maritime Infrastructure
At its core, Nautica is a robotics company, but with a clear path to becoming a maritime data infrastructure play. Their hull intelligence platform uses data gathered during cleaning sessions to build digital twins, enabling predictive maintenance and continuous monitoring. It's the beginning of a full-stack software layer for fleet health, compliance, and performance optimization, an emerging multibillion-dollar market on its own.
🚢 Early Validation, Strong Momentum
Since inception, Nautica has successfully tested its technology on vessels in live environments and secured multiple pilot projects with global operators. Industry interest is high, and the company is already seeing strong traction across geographies and fleet types.
🧠 A World-Class Founding Team
Nautica is led by Cedric Portmann (CEO) and Dr. Mina Kamel (CTO), who bring deep robotics expertise from ETH Zurich, EPFL, and previous ventures in autonomous systems. Their complementary strengths, engineering depth, product rigor, and industry engagement give us strong conviction in their ability to execute across both hardware and software layers.
We're proud to lead this round, alongside committed angel investors and co-investors like Rethink Ventures, Partners in Clime and Prequel Ventures. Nautica’s vision is bold: to make autonomous hull maintenance a new maritime standard, and to decarbonize global shipping, one clean hull at a time.
This is robotics with ripple effects. And the robots are already in the water.
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