Seagrass is stronger than it looks. Although the marine plant only takes up 0.1% of the ocean floor, it helps keep fish and plants alive in the ocean by cleaning the water and storing a lot of carbon. Seagrass is also dying because of climate change and other things, and each year, fields around the world lose 7% of their area. It’s something that Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering wants to fix up.
The self-driving robot Ulysses can be designed to go to certain spots on the ocean floor and plant seagrass. Akhil Voorakkara, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Ulysses, told Parhlo World that the robot they built has brought back the land 100 times faster than having people plant grass seeds by hand, and it doesn’t cost nearly as much as other robots.
Jamie Wedderburn, who is now CTO, came up with the idea for the business while surfing with friends on Scotland’s West Coast in early 2023. One of his friends told him about a terrible charity job they had recently where they had to plant seagrass on a very windy day in Scotland. It hurt a lot for more than 40 people to plant seagrass that washed away by rough weather.
Hearing this story led Wedderburn down a rabbit hole because he didn’t know how important seagrass was. He thought that technology could be used to make things like that work better. Wedderburn told Voorakkara about the idea, and he too fell down the same rabbit hole. Colm O’Brien and Will O’Brien, the other two co-founders of the company, felt the same way.
Will O’Brien told Parhlo World, “I knew that would be fun right away.” “Also, having the chance to build a mission-driven company that works mostly in the oceans and cares a lot about nature and biodiversity was also very appealing to me.” Steve Irwin was my hero when I was a kid.
Voorakkara said that the team chose to solve the problem by making a robot because none of them knew much about marine biology but they did know how to make robots. They made a 3-D model quickly, but it wasn’t waterproof and leaked when they used it. However, it worked well enough to inject sesame seeds to show them there was something there. As soon as they were sure, they asked experts for help.
Voice of the Sea said, “None of us are marine biologists.” “If you don’t ask, you won’t get it. We did ask for help and advice from the top people working on restoring seagrass to make sure it wasn’t crazy very early on in our journey.” This group of people was really excited about our plans and eager to work with us.
When it first came out in early 2024, Ulysses made almost $1 million from both private and public organizations. For large-scale restoration projects, the company also works with a number of government departments in places like Florida and Australia.
The startup is now coming out of stealth mode and launching a $2 million pre-seed funding round. Lowercarbon Capital will lead the round, with VCs Superorganism and ReGen Ventures and angel investors also taking part. Voorakkara said that the business will use the money to add engineers and people who work on plans for going to market to its current team of five.
This is a good time for Ulysses because many countries are putting more focus and urgency on restoring seagrass meadows. The European Union passed new rules earlier this year that aim to restore different environments by 2030 and 2050. One of these rules specifically mentions seagrass.
According to Voorakkara, the company will be trying a new feature for the robot this month. The robot will be able to pick seeds from approved seagrass beds and then plant those seeds where they are needed.
The company’s main focus right now is seagrass, but they see it as just the start. O’Brien said that the technology is really self-driving drones that are linked to a main platform. This means that it can be used in more areas, such as coastal management, coastal security, and other types of repair.
O’Brien said, “The oceans really are this frontier in humanity that is far too little explored.” “There aren’t many new technological solutions, and that’s because it’s a very hard field to work in—dealing with currents is very harsh when you have all of these things going on.” We want to bring the same amount of innovation to this new area on Earth as SpaceX.
Other businesses also want to make robots that can work underwater. Terradepth is a company that has raised more than $30 million in venture capital to map the ocean floor for business and government clients. The Norwegian company Eelume is also interested in finding new things in the ocean.
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“We don’t just want to restore seagrass in five years; we want to be in charge of hundreds of kilometers of coastline,” Voorakkara said. “We want to give more power to organizations like NOAA, the US Coast Guard, and everyone else who is working to serve and protect the ocean in a better way.”
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