“Whoever controls the oceans…”
New tech and big opportunity in the maritime domain
We’ve been believers in the opportunity set in maritime/ocean tech for years now, dating back to a pre-seed investment in ShipIn Systems and more recently our investment in AndrenaM.
There was a great post on X this weekend by x/@willobri about the opportunity set in Ocean Tech, and why now is an incredible time to be building for it. I thought it was great and worth sharing verbatim here, pasted below in italics.
___________
There’s so much opportunity in ocean technology right now that literally nobody is talking about. It’s probably the most underrated startup vertical.
The ocean economy is MASSIVE - over $2 trillion. Covers 70% of the planet. 3 billion rely on it as their primary source of food. 1 billion as their primary source of income.
And while we have robots on mars, low-cost high performance drones & supersonic/VTOL planes taking over our skies, the technology in our oceans PALES in comparison to these domains.
The main players in nearly every ocean value driver (transport, fisheries, defense, energy, oil & gas, biodiversity etc.) are large, stale incumbents offering solutions that run on ancient software and hardware stacks with very little R&D spend. These companies are STATIC and the space is primed for disruption.
Macro trends are driving the need for better solutions in the ocean. Our climate is changing and the ocean is suffering. Fisheries are on track to collapse. Law enforcement want tighter borders to prevent illegal drugs and migrants entering. The US Navy is preparing for a potential conflict in the South China Sea. Energy demands are rising and eyes are turning to the ocean. More subsea cables are being laid (cf. FB announcement) but there are concerns over security (cf. Nordstream). Offshore wind and deep sea mining continue to grow. The list goes on.
In a similar way to how there has been a flurry of “New Space” companies breaking out in recent years, we are going to see a similar cohort of “New Ocean” companies breaking out in the next few years.
Many of these will be vertically-integrated hardware companies that start off by tackling a “hair on fire” customer need and leveraging it to build a broader platform of solutions.
Engineering for the ocean is HARD - comms, material selection, cost, power supply and biofouling are TOUGH problems to solve BUT not impossible.
I think we are on the verge of a real breakout moment for oceans. There is going to be some really big businesses made in new boats (Arc, Navier), ships, autonomous systems (Ulysses), seaplanes (Poseidon), subsea data centers (NetworkOcean) and big companies will be built in aquaculture (Macro Oceans), fishing (Shinkei), defense (Saronic, VATN), energy, carbon removal (Equatic, Captura, Ebb), deep sea mining etc.
It’s the ocean’s time to shine.