Second tranche of investment in for Nauticus Robotics to execute 2024 goals

U.S.-based developer of subsea autonomous robotic systems and software Nauticus Robotics has secured over $12 million in funding, part of a second tranche of investment, to execute 2024 goals, including augmented autonomy for subsea robots.

Nauticus Robotics secured the first tranche of financing before the close of 2023, said to have eliminated many of the dilutive warrants and ratchet provisions of the original de-SPAC financing in the process. 

The new investment is expected to expedite the certification of Nauticus’ Aquanaut robot, which facilitates the transformation of tethered ROV operations to fully autonomous operations.

The flagship robot is expected to perform numerous tasks in water depths ranging from 200 – 2000+ meters during February in preparation for an inaugural job inspecting a deep-water production facility of a major oil and gas company in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said.

“We realized the fastest path to full autonomy would be through the deployment of ‘tethered/augmented autonomy.’ This allows the customer and operators to retain the ability to intervene while simultaneously allowing Nauticus to gather the operational data needed to train our fully autonomous solutions for the future,” said President of Nauticus John Gibson.

“This is possible because our software architecture is platform independent and can be used on all subsurface vehicles and has already been deployed on several competitor vehicles for defense-related work. This enables the company to become a multi-platform operating system for a vast array of vehicles already deployed. The forecasted efficiency improvements for existing platforms using ‘tethered autonomy’ will exceed 20%, while simultaneously reducing emissions and increasing safety for all subsea robots.”

The new investment comes weeks after Nauticus Robotics announced a change in leadership, including a new CEO, CFO and lead General Counsel.

The company said that while it is investing heavily into commercialization, it is also actively working to minimize G&A costs and changes to align board cost with the current forecast are underway.

Nauticus Robotics has retained Piper Sandler & Co. to assist in the evaluation of strategic options to maximize shareholder value and the acquisition of 3D At Depth.

“What Nauticus has planned can truly revolutionize the entire industry – and I don’t use that term lightly. We can now normalize performance of ROV operators because you will no longer have disparities between skill levels of employees. This obviously provides substantial safeguards to any company using this technology,” said Sean Halpin, Head of Autonomous Solutions at Nauticus Robotics.

“We are creating a win-win situation for ROV operators. We are not asking them to give up complete control. These robots are not replacing jobs, but instead are making them both easier and more reliable,” said Chuck Claunch, Co-Head of Software Solutions.