A Series B financing round led by the Blue Ocean fund, managed by sustainable investor SWEN Capital Partners, reportedly raised $12m and will enable ECOsubsea, a Norwegian hull cleaning specialist to scale up its operations.
While hull cleaning, the topic and the tech to get the job done, have grown in prominence with the IMO's push for maritime to reduce emissions, the differentiator for ECOsubsea’s technology is that it is designed to both clean and capture biofouling in a closed loop system.
“Our service is provided in parallel with port operations, it is compatible with all coating types and can be used on any vessel," said ECOsubsea CEO Tor M Østervold in a press release announcing the funding. "Our goal is to clean a 400-meter container vessel in under 12 hours.”
Submerged robotic ‘vacuum cleaners’ move over the ship’s hull, removing biofouling and capturing the debris in a multi-layered processing system. The closed loop system protects local biodiversity from pollutants and alien species.
ECOsubsea robotic hull cleaner at work on a berthed vessel. (Photo: ECOsubsea)
