This latest close includes follow-on investments by the Brunswick Corporation and their investment partner TechNexus, Toyota AI Ventures and NextGen Venture Partners. Sea Machines also welcomes a new investor, Dolby Family Ventures of San Francisco.

“We set the goals for this round in March and with this now accomplished we find ourselves in a great position to focus on execution and scaling by growing our team, expanding our product sales and furthering our advanced technology,” said CEO Michael G. Johnson, Sea Machines. “Market adoption of our autonomous and remote command products is well underway and over the next year we will be delivering new cutting-edge technical features, including computer vision for domain sensing and advancements in decision support.”

Sea Machines’ autonomous systems serve the modern mariner. They markedly increase productivity of vessel operations by assuming active domain perception and navigation duties. A Sea Machines’ system works under the command of a human operator and – by taking on the long duration and often repetitive control duties – it boosts the predictability and precision of operations while lowering the risk of fatigue-related incidents. The technology also enables new capabilities on water, such as the onshore command of remote offshore vessels.

About Sea Machines
Headquartered in the global tech hub of Boston and operating globally, Sea Machines is the leader in pioneering autonomous control and advanced perception systems for the marine industries. Founded in 2015, the company builds autonomous vessel software and systems, which increases the safety, efficiency and performance of ships, workboats and other commercial vessels. Learn more about Sea Machines at www.sea-machines.com.

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GCaptain published an article highlighting the huge growth the autonomous marine technology market is experiencing as a result of COVID-19. Key points include:

• While the maritime world struggles with COVID-19, one industry segment continues to grow at a rapid pace: Marine Autonomy. With companies like the MIT startup, Blksail completing autonomous trials remotely, autonomous inland shipping companies like ZULU Associates preparing to enter the New York market, and larger scaleups like Sea Machines closing large strategic investment deals, the rapid growth of autonomous solution providers is impressive.

• The U.S. Navy and the NOAA has also made rapid progress in vessel autonomy by signing a new agreement to jointly expand the development and operations of unmanned maritime systems in the nation’s coastal and world’s ocean waters.

• One reason for the growth in autonomous solutions is a large number of mariners unable to sign off ships because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. While smarter ships might help with these problems, many of the deals we are seeing today are not positioned to replace commercial mariners.

In summary, the article states: It is unclear how the broader industry will perform in the post-coronavirus world but it is clear that marine autonomy will play a large and critically important role.

Read the full story here.

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As the Navy continues its pursuit of unmanned vehicles, Huntington Ingalls Industries hopes to harness its experience building the service’s largest platforms to expand naval capability in the unmanned realm.

After purchasing a company that builds unmanned undersea vehicles earlier this year, HII last month announced an investment in Sea Machines Robotics, a company located in Boston, Mass. that focuses on software for the unmanned surface vehicle market.

Andy Green, HII Technical Solutions group president, said the latest investment will allow the company to respond to the Navy’s requests and help the service learn more about the new unmanned technologies it plans to use.

“Unmanned vehicles – whether surface or sub-surface – they extend the reach and act as a multiplier of existing platforms for, whether it’s [the] United States Navy or one of our allies, it provides significant extension of those platforms’ capabilities, regardless of the specific mission the platform’s being used for,” Green told USNI News in a recent interview.

The former submariner billed unmanned platforms as a way for the Navy to supplement legacy platforms like amphibious ships and combatants with new technology.

“They’re essentially augmenting the larger combatant platforms that are out there, whether you’re talking about submarines or DDGs, or amphibs,” he said of the unmanned surface vehicles.

Green described the Sea Machines investment as a “logical extension” of what HII delivers to the Navy.

“Sea Machines brings a set of capabilities to the table that we believe has a lot of potential in the USV market, which is why we got involved with them,” he told USNI News. “But there are a lot of other pieces to the puzzle. When you talk about the different technologies, because they go into UUVs and USVs, the autonomy software is just one piece of that.”

“When you say autonomy, there’s a lot of subsets of autonomy that you got to think about, whether you’re thinking about controlling propulsion, you’re controlling steering and navigation, etc, or your control of whatever devices and sensors that you’ve got onboard,” he continued.

In a press release announcing the investment from HII, Sea Machines defined its autonomous control system as one that “works under the command of a human operator” and “boosts the predictability and precision of operations while lowering the risk of fatigue-related incidents.”

HII first launched into the unmanned market in early 2015, when the company disclosed its purchase of The Columbia Group’s Engineering Solutions Division, which built the Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle known as Proteus. Then, earlier this year, HII reached a $350 million deal with Kongsberg to purchase Hydroid, which builds unmanned underwater vehicles.

HII also joined Boeing in a collaborative bid for the Navy’s Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle, for which Boeing received a $43 million contract to build four vessels in February 2019.

The most recent investment from HII in the unmanned surface vehicle arena comes as the Navy works to determine how unmanned vehicles will fit into its future fleet architecture. Last year, the Navy stood up Surface Development Squadron 1 (SURFDEVRON) to cultivate the service’s concepts of operations for unmanned vehicles. SURFDEVRON is using the Navy’s Sea Hunter, a medium unmanned surface vehicle born out of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency endeavor, to experiment with the CONOPS.

But the pursuit of unmanned platforms has hit roadblocks in Congress, as lawmakers express skepticism over the Navy’s approach and suggest the service is moving too quickly on technology it has yet to test. House and Senate authorizers in drafting the fiscal year 2021 defense policy bills sought to increase oversight of the Navy’s Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle program.

Green said that HII, due to its history building platforms from aircraft carriers to submarines, is in a unique position to help the Navy. HII is the only contractor that builds the service’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The company also builds amphibious assault ships, amphibious transport dock vessels, and destroyers.

“When you think about how we can leverage unmanned systems technology in our existing platforms . . . because we make all those platforms . . . we have the ability to, as these technologies develop, to do technology insertion, to work with our program folks on the larger programs . . . and see where we can insert those technologies — see where we can leverage all of our many many decades of experience in building maritime platforms and undersea platforms — leverage that in developing technology that’s going to take UUVs and USVs to that next stage,” he said.

Sea Machines’ A.I.-powered advanced perception system gives commercial vessel operators enhanced situational awareness via obstacle detection, collision avoidance and environment-understanding capabilities for increased safety, predictability and productivity on the water.

One way HII can help the Navy, according to Green, is by discovering “creative ways” the service could employ autonomous technology, or launch and recover unmanned platforms.

“Everybody is sort of trying to feel out this space and figure out how it’s going to evolve and how the CONOPS are going to evolve, etc. and I think being there, at the table, partnered with the Navy across all platforms certainly puts us in a good position to help them out,” Green said. “And if we can continue producing these platforms, making sure that the costs are as controlled as possible — keep these programs as affordable as possible — while giving them what they need in terms of capability and bringing them good ideas maybe that they hadn’t thought of on how to use these things, then I think we’ll all be in a good position.”

By investing in both the unmanned undersea and surface vehicle areas, Green said HII can support the Navy with the interoperability and integration the service will require as it grows its unmanned arsenal.

“I think the more that we can invest in and demonstrate that we can weave these technologies together across the UUV space and the USV space, I think the better it is for the Navy,” Green said. “Because the more commonality they have across their programs and the better these vehicles can communicate, not only with manned platforms, whether it be sub-sea, surface or air, but also communicate with other unmanned platforms – sub-sea, surface and air — it’s going to be helpful to them.”

Top photo: Artist’s conception of the Boeing and HII Orca XLUUV. (Boeing image)

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Boston-based vessel autonomy startup Sea Machines is making waves with its advanced remote-control and autonomous operation technology. It recently completed a successful Series B venture capital fundraising round with participation from some of the biggest names in the sector, including top naval shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries. Founder and CEO Michael G. Johnson recently discussed how his company is modernizing the commercial marine industry.

Q: Sea Machines announced that it has raised $15 million in funding. Explain the significance of this and what it means for the company and greater maritime community?

The funds we were able to raise in this latest round are going to significantly impact Sea Machines, and therefore the maritime and marine industries as a whole. The funds will be put to use to further strengthen our technical development team as well as build out our next level of systems manufacturing and scale our operations group to support customer deployments.  We will also be investing in some supporting technologies to speed our course to full dock-to-dock, over-the-horizon autonomy. The purpose of our technology is to optimize vessel operations with increased performance, productivity, predictability and ultimately safety.

Q: Was fundraising much more challenging this time around, considering our pandemic-induced recession? 

On the whole, no. Raising capital is not meant to be easy but it’s safe to say that this round was simpler than previous raises. Because of where we are as a company, we have been proving our ability to retool the marine industry with our technology, and therefore we are delivering confidence to investors. We were forced to conduct the entire process by video conference, which may have increased overall efficiency of the raise as these rounds traditionally require thousands if not tens of thousands of miles of travel for face-to-face meetings, diligence, and handshakes.

Remote pitches also proved to be an advantage because it allowed us to showcase our technology in a more direct way. We did online demos where we had our team remotely connected to our vessels off Boston Harbor. We were really able to get the investors into a captain’s chair, as if they were remotely commanding a vessel in real-world operations. That worked out well.

Sea Machines’ remote command station in Boston

Q: Tell us a little about your partnership with Huntington Ingalls (HII), America’s largest shipbuilder. 

We are especially excited to be partnering with Huntington Ingalls in this round. What’s not to love about partnering with the builder of the SS United States, USS Enterprise and so many other amazing ships? HII is a solid and diversified company and as you know the leading capital ship supplier to the U.S. Navy. HII is a top choice partner for a growing marine autonomy company. They are more than a shipbuilder, also now leading in underwater autonomous systems, and they have a technical solutions group comprised of more than 6,000 personnel. The partnership gives us a supporting company to help us better serve U.S. government customers, a first-hand understanding of the technical needs of the U.S. Navy, and access to HII’s strengths in technical areas that are necessary to support autonomous operations, such as cybersecurity and modern HM&E. HII also lives and represents a social conscience that matches with modern society and our commitment to social responsibility.

Q: Sea Machines seems to have developed a strong foothold in the government industry with this announcement. Is that where you see your niche?

The government is an important and critical part of our growth strategy, but it’s just one piece. We also have a heavy emphasis on the task-driven workboat sector – marine survey, spill, fire, search-and-rescue, aquaculture and other boats – as well as the transit-driven maritime and passenger vessel sectors. Our autonomy can be used onboard as an advanced pilot assist system with a crew or provide remote command of a vessel.

Q: Which sectors seem to be the early adopters of marine autonomy?

It’s coming at us quickly.  The defense and task-driven workboat sectors are the first adopters, commercial passenger and shipping are now in the early stage of innovation trials.

The areas of value provided by autonomous technology overlaps for all sectors, however, for the navy, new on-water capabilities and unmanned vessels are a leading driver, whereas commercial is looking for increased productivity, efficiency and predictable operations. Our systems meet all of these needs. Our technology is designed to be installed on new vessels as well as existing vessels. Our ability to upgrade existing fleets greatly reduces the time and cost to leverage the value of our autonomous systems.  It definitely speeds up the adoption of the technology.

Sea Machines’ autonomous workboat, Lightning, a 29-foot vessel now being offered through Metal Shark’s “Sharktech” autonomous division

Q: Can you provide us with the latest on your technology development?

This month we are releasing software version 1.6 on our SM300. That’s six significant updates in 18 months, each one providing increased technical hardening and new base features and applicative features for specific workboat sectors. In January, we announced the receipt of ABS and USCG approval for our SM200 wireless helm and control systems on a major class of U.S.-flag articulated tug-barges (ATBs), the first unit has been installed and is in operation and we look forward to announcing details around it.  We will be taking the SM200 forward into the type-approval process.

Sea Machines has also begun serving the survey vessel market with the first announced collaboration with DEEP BV in the Netherlands; the vessel outfitted with the SM300 will be entering survey service within the month. In the second half of 2020 we are also commencing onboard collaborations with some crew-transfer vessel (CTV) operators serving the wind farm industry.

Q: In closing, what does the future look like for Sea Machines and our industry, with your systems on the market?

Being in our fifth year we have a good sense of what the industry needs and where it’s going. Sea Machines systems are already at work off the waters of four continents. Today we install systems on one or two vessels at a time and within a couple years it will be entire customer fleets at a swoop. To meet this demand, we are expanding our teams in Boston and Hamburg. We also recently opened an office in the Esberg, Denmark, to better serve the many forward-looking customers of that region.

The marine industries are a critically significant component of the global economy and it’s up to us within to keep it strong and relevant. Along with people, processes and capital, pressing the bounds of technology is a key driver. The world is being revolutionized by intelligent and autonomous self-piloting technology and today we find ourselves just beyond the starting line of a busy road to broad adoption through all marine sectors. If Sea Machines continues to chart the course with forward-looking pertinence then you will see us rise up to become one of the most significant companies and brands serving the industry in the 21st century.

Top photo: Sea Machines’ A.I.-powered advanced perception system gives commercial vessel operators enhanced situational awareness via obstacle detection, collision avoidance and environment-understanding capabilities for increased safety, predictability and productivity on the water. 

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Click to listen to the full interview (Starting at 13:06):

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• How we used our technology to put investors in the captain’s chair remotely during a global pandemic,
• Why our partnership with Huntington Ingalls is significant to the industry, and
• How we plan to grow the company during this exciting time.

Full story available online here.

Story originally appeared on BOSTInno.

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(BOSTON; July 22, 2020) – Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics, a leading developer of autonomous systems for ocean-going vessels and workboats, announced today that it has closed a new $15 million financing round with significant participation by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services. This investment in Sea Machines marks one of the largest venture rounds for an advanced technology company serving the marine and maritime industries.

The strategic investment and associated partnership with HII will accelerate the deployment of self-piloting technologies in the rising market of unmanned naval boats and ships and is a continuation of HII’s expansion in the rapidly growing autonomous and unmanned maritime systems industry.

“This reinforces Sea Machines’ position as the leading developer of autonomous navigation and wireless vessel control systems,” said Michael G. Johnson, CEO, Sea Machines. “Our ability to secure significant financing during a challenging economic environment is an indicator of investors’ confidence in our ability to reshape and retool the marine industries with modern-day, advanced technologies. And being selected as technology partner by HII, a leader in every right, further affirms our course in product and market approach.”

“This investment represents our commitment to advanced innovation and competencies across the unmanned systems market,” said Andy Green, executive vice president and president of technical solutions, HII. “Sea Machines is making significant strides in the unmanned surface vessel (USV) industry. We want to invest in their growth and continue to form complementary partnerships across this key domain.”

Sea Machines’ autonomous systems serve the modern mariner. They markedly increase productivity of vessel operations by assuming active domain perception and navigation duties. A Sea Machines system works under the command of a human operator and, by taking on the long duration and often repetitive control duties, it boosts the predictability and precision of operations while lowering the risk of fatigue-related incidents. The technology also enables new capabilities on water, such as the onshore command of remote offshore vessels.

“We are entering a phase of growth and universal interest like what was witnessed in the self-driving automotive space starting five years ago, but the difference being that marine self-piloting systems are already operationally deployed. We expect to see broad adoption of autonomous technology on water ahead of that on roads,” said Johnson.

Since launching its first family of products in late 2018, Sea Machines has deployed systems on vessels serving a multitude of sectors. From large cargo vessels (such as the previously disclosed program with A.P. Moller-Maersk) to U.S.-flag ATBs and data-collecting survey boats, oil-spill response craft, search-and-rescue (SAR), patrol and crew transfer vessels. Sea Machines systems are now operating in four of the world’s eight geographical regions and this reach is enabled through a dealer-partner program with established marine electronics integrators.

This investment round was led by Accomplice with further participation by Toyota AI Ventures, Brunswick Corp. (through investment partner TechNexus), Geekdom Fund, NextGen Venture Partners, Eniac VC, LaunchCapital and others.

“Five percent of global GDP is directly fueled by the marine economy and the industry is poised for technology innovation,” said Ryan Moore, partner, Accomplice. “Michael and the Sea Machines team have achieved significant progress and this financing underscores our strong position.”

About Sea Machines
Headquartered in the global tech hub of Boston and operating globally, Sea Machines is the leader in pioneering autonomous control and advanced perception systems for the marine industries. Founded in 2015, the company builds autonomous vessel software and systems, which increases the safety, efficiency and performance of ships, workboats and commercial vessels. Learn more about Sea Machines at www.sea-machines.com.

Huntington Ingalls Industries
Huntington Ingalls Industries is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HII’s Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HII’s Technical Solutions division supports national security missions around the globe with unmanned systems, defense and federal solutions, nuclear and environmental services, and fleet sustainment. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs more than 42,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit: www.huntingtoningalls.com.

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(BOSTON; January 9, 2019) – Sea Machines Robotics, a Boston-based developer of autonomous vessel control technology, announced today the establishment of a new dealer program to support the company’s global sales across key commercial marine markets. The program includes many strategic partners who are enabled to sell, install and service the company’s line of intelligent command and control systems for workboats. The SM Series products, SM300 and SM200, provide marine operators a new era of task-driven, computer-guided vessel control, bringing advanced autonomy within reach for small- and large-scale operations. 

The Sea Machines dealer network includes the following initial builders and specialists, located in strategic regions:

• Navtronics (York, Maine, USA)
• Marine Group Boat Works (San Diego, California, USA)
• La Conner Maritime (La Conner, Washington, USA)
• Seacoast Marine Electronics (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
• Pinpoint Electronics (Plymouth, United Kingdom)
• Marble Automation BV (Netherlands)
• Technology Ventures (United Arab Emirates)
• CAN Traders & Services (Singapore)

“Establishing this dealer network ensures that customers have access to Sea Machines products and service on a global scale,” said Phil Bourque, director, business development. “We consider each dealer an extension of the Sea Machines factory team, as they are ready to support SM series products from initial sale through post-installation. We look forward to announcing additional dealers in the coming months.”

“With four years of technical development and product testing now completed, we are offering the SM Series of products to the global marine market with extreme confidence. Autonomous and remote-control capability unlock real value in traditional marine operations and open new opportunities on water,” said the company’s founder and CEO Michael Gordon Johnson. “Our focus is on tech that enables a new era of marine and maritime operations, one that is empowered with increased capability, productivity and profitability. I am pleased to be working with this group of first-class integrator/dealers that share credence in progress and innovation.”

Sea Machines SM product series is available now and can be installed aboard existing or new-build commercial vessels with return on investment typically seen within a year. The company is also currently developing advanced perception and navigation assistance technology for a range of vessel types, including container ships. In early 2019, the company will initiate testing of its perception and situational awareness technology aboard one of A.P. Moller-Maersk’s new ice-class container ships.

In December 2018, Sea Machines announced that it had raised another $10 million in venture funding, marking one of the largest venture rounds for a marine- and maritime-focused technology company.

About Sea Machines
Headquartered in the global tech hub of Boston and operating globally, Sea Machines is a leader in pioneering autonomous control and advanced perception systems for the maritime industry. Founded in 2015, the company builds autonomous vessel software and systems, which increases the safety, efficiency and performance of ships, workboats and commercial vessels. Learn more about Sea Machines at www.sea-machines.com.

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“Toyota is a mobility company,” says Toyota AI Ventures lead Jim Adler. “It makes perfect sense we’d see autonomy applied to seagoing vessels.

Click here to read the full story.

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(BOSTON; December 17, 2018) – Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics announced today that it has closed a $10 million Series A investment led by Accomplice and Eniac Ventures, with participation from Toyota AI Ventures; Brunswick Corp., through investment partner TechNexus Venture Collaborative; NextGen VP, Geekdom Fund; LaunchCapital; LDV Capital and others. The investment marks one of the largest venture rounds for a marine- and maritime-focused technology company and brings the total capital Sea Machines has raised to $12.5M. Sea Machines will use the funds to expand the sales and global reach of its recently released line of products, grow the R&D and engineering teams, roll out new product feature sets, and further the company’s lead in developing advanced situational awareness systems for vessels.  

The industrial marine sector encompasses a broad domain of significant industries, such as maritime transportation, offshore energy, and commercial fishing and aquaculture. Though each are major contributors to the global economy, they commonly operate near or below break-even, in large part due to continued reliance on 20th-century methodologies and technologies. Today’s autonomous technology offers proven solutions to these challenges, and is already being used to retool and modernize the industry for the better.

“We are creating the technology that propels the future of the marine industries. This investment enables us to double down on our commitment to building advanced command and control products that make the industry more capable, productive and profitable,” said Michael Gordon Johnson, founder and CEO, Sea Machines. “This backing is another signal that Sea Machines is the unquestioned leader in the space and is playing an integral role in the revolution of marine and maritime operations driven by technology.”

“At Toyota AI Ventures, we believe that autonomous mobility can help improve people’s lives and create new capabilities – whether on land, in the air or at sea,” said Jim Adler, founding managing director, Toyota AI Ventures. “Sea Machines’ autonomous technology and advanced perception systems can reduce costs, improve efficiency and enhance safety in the multi-billion dollar commercial shipping industry. This marks our first investment in the maritime industry, and we’re excited to embark on this journey with Sea Machines.” 

“Eniac Ventures is excited to back Michael Johnson and the Sea Machines team – the leading maritime and robotics experts solving this industry’s most critical issues, including labor, safety, efficiency and cost,” said Vic Singh, founding general partner, Eniac Ventures. “The level of traction they have from the global maritime industry is a telltale sign that the industry is the next frontier for autonomy. We’re excited to support them as they scale in this important phase of their journey.”

“I think this investment sends a strong signal on the types of technologies that will come to define the maritime industry in the future,” said P. Michael A. Rodey, senior manager, A.P. Moller-Maersk.

Sea Machines is currently developing advanced perception and navigation assistance technology for a range of vessel types, including container ships. In the first quarter, the company will initiate testing of its perception and situational awareness technology aboard one of A.P. Moller-Maersk’s new-build ice-class container ships. 

In October, Sea Machines released its introductory line of autonomous command and remote control systems, developed for the demanding challenges of vessels serving the offshore commercial, scientific and government applications. The SM product series is available now and can be installed aboard existing or new-build commercial vessels with return on investment typically seen within a year.

About Sea Machines
Headquartered in the global tech hub of Boston with a second office in Hamburg, Germany, Sea Machines is a leader in pioneering autonomous control and advanced perception systems for the marine and maritime industries. Founded in 2015, the company builds autonomous vessel software and systems, with a purpose of increasing safety, capability, and performance of commercial vessels, including workboats, security craft, ferries and cargo vessels. Learn more about Sea Machines at www.sea-machines.com.  

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