Ocean tech startups celebrate progress at Blue w(AI)ve Showcase

At the Blue w(AI)ve Venture Showcase, held at Northeastern University’s Roux Institute on May 23rd and co-hosted by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, seven blue tech entrepreneurs gave the audience a peek at what the future of oceans will look like.

Created in a partnership between the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) and Northeastern University’s Roux Institute and Institute for Experiential AI, the Blue w(AI)ve program supports startups from across the globe in their quest to leverage AI for ocean-based solutions. The venture showcase was held at the conclusion of the16-week program.

The showcase was kicked off by GMRI’s Chief Venture Officer, Blaine Grimes, who spoke about the motivations behind the creation of the Blue w(AI)ve Accelerator.

“This program is about the intersection of oceans and climate, and the evolving and emerging opportunities presented by artificial intelligence and technology,” she explained.

“Maine is a living laboratory. We are sitting on the ocean, we are ocean-centric, we have wet feet. It’s an important place to offer opportunities to entrepreneurs who are interested in bringing forward new technologies that will enable us to move our current industry and economy forward.”

The partnership between GMRI and Northeastern’s Roux Institute is ripe for ocean innovation, Grimes noted. “GMRI is an expert on oceans and climate, and the Roux Institute has an extraordinary capacity for data science, computer science, and experiential AI.”

Ben Chesler, the director of venture creation at the Roux Institute, spoke next, outlining the benefits of giving the seven participating startups direct access to GMRI and Northeastern as they innovated on their technologies. Benefits of the program included:

1. Each company was paired with a scientist-in-residence from GMRI who provided deep industry knowledge and helped the founders create connections within the state.
2. A group of investors worked one-on-one with each company to guide them through the fundraising process, and to provide feedback on their business models.
3. Each company was paired with a team at Northeastern’s Institute for Experiential AI and received consulting services valued at $25,000 to help develop their AI solutions.

As the seven founders pitched their startups, it became evident that advanced technologies and AI are poised to play a pivotal role in the revitalization and transformation of our oceans. The companies introduced AI-driven solutions for marine mammal conservation, sustainable underwater infrastructure, aquaculture and carbon capture monitoring, and predicting coastal flooding and other climate events.

James Shanahan, the director of Northeastern’s AI Solutions Hub, said his team was a proud partner to the Blue w(AI)ve startups.

“This program is a blue economy petri dish that blends state of the art AI techniques, business, and sustainability practices to build next-generation marine technology,” he said. “We at the Institute for Experiential AI are delighted to be part of this program.”

The founders were also enthusiastic about their time in the program.

“The Blue w(AI)ve program helped us grow in a way that would not have been possible otherwise,” said Ami Everett, a marine scientist for Blue Latitudes. Her marine environmental consulting firm created a product offering that, among other things, helps oil and gas companies turn decommissioned oil rigs into sustainable reefs.

“The resources and connections that the program provided us accelerated our development and helped us expand our original ideas into ones that can be applicable across the entire blue economy,” she added.

Shishir Rao, the co-founder and CTO of SeaDeep, a company that uses advanced AI to map, assess, and report on the ocean, said the program exceeded his expectations. “We’ve gotten so much more than we thought we would,” he said. “The access to VC mentors and experts has greatly enhanced our profile.”

Lucy Barrett is the senior manager of innovation and entrepreneurship at GMRI and helped run the program. Reflecting on the success of the inaugural Blue w(AI)ve cohort, she’s excited about what it means for the future of oceans.

“The program attracted a diverse group of entrepreneurs from around the world, all of whom recognized the value of connecting with and accessing networks and resources in Maine,” she said. “This highlights the unique resources available here, which serve as a testing ground for global ocean applications and solutions.”

Barrett says that, given the program’s success, her team is fundraising to welcome subsequent cohorts to the program. GMRI and the Roux Institute have also partnered with MassChallengefor funding to implement a NOAA

The seven companies that participated in the inaugural Blue w(AI)ve Accelerator program are:

• Blue Latitudes (CA) is working to transform offshore platforms into permanent artificial reefs. The company is developing FishLAT, Fisheries Location Assessment Technology, which is a spatial planning tool that provides location-specific fisheries information to help inform decisions on offshore energy removal, reefing, and installation.

• Coastal Carbon (Kitchener, Ontario) provides underwater remote monitoring for seaweed aquaculture and ocean restoration.

• Coastal Measures (Durham, NH) is an environmental data company that uses AI and other data science techniques to seamlessly bridge the gap between raw data and informed decisions for customers in aquaculture, renewable energy capture, insurance, and risk management and mitigation.

• Deep Voice (Tel Aviv, Israel) is developing an AI-based passive acoustics monitoring system currently focused on the conservation of marine mammals.

• LOOKOUT (Boston, MA) is commercializing an AI marine camera system with 360-degree computer vision and augmented navigation that plugs into any standard helm display. Their product synthesizes data from charts, AIS, computer vision, and the cloud, then fuses it into one intuitive, 3D augmented reality view to improve situational awareness and spot hazards for boaters.

• Nekton Labs (San Francisco, CA) leverages ocean sensing and AI to measure, verify, and predict marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) with high accuracy and precision.

• SeaDeep (Boston, MA) develops AI to map, monitor, and explore the ocean.

Read more about the program here and watch the company give their one-minute pitches.