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In today’s edition: We’ve got the first aquaculture unicorn, merchant ship CO2 management, and underwater drones!

About this Newsletter: The BlueX Newsletter scours the internet for venture and startup news related to OceanTech. We stick to sustainability and climate-focused startup news. It broadcasts every two weeks.

OceanTech Fundings

🦑 eFishery, an Indonesian shrimp farming tech startup, raised $108 million in a Series D round, led by Abu Dhabi-based 42XFund, SoftBank and Northstar Group, becoming the first aquaculture startup to reach unicorn status. | More from The Fish Site

🛥 Zero44, a Berlin, Germany-based SaaS startup for CO2 management of merchant ships, raised €2.5M in funding led by Atlantic Labs, with participation from Starthub Ventures and Bernhard Schulte Innoport, as well as several business angels from the logistics and shipping industry. | More from FinSMEs

🌊 Waterplan, a San Francisco-based climate water-risk platform, raised $11M in a Series A financing round led by Base10 Partners with participation from Giant Ventures & Transition Global, YCombinator, MCJ Collective and the Branson Family. | More from FinSMEs

💽 Sinay, a maritime AI and predictive solutions tech company, raised €5M in a seed funding round led by Seventure Partners’ Blue Forward Fund, and including investors from Europe, Singapore, Hong-Kong and the USA. | More from Hellenic Shipping News

More OceanTech News

Some of the OceanTech articles we liked. Not fundings necessarily, but some great stuff:

🛥 Flagship Founders announce spin-off of new startup Arinto, an arrival optimisation system for shipping industry | Arinto will enable shipping firms and ship managers to determine the optimal time for ships to arrive, improving the efficiency of trips. | More from Silicon Canals

🐙 uWare robotics map what lies beneath the ocean with its autonomous underwater drone tech | This week Belgian-Spanish startup uWare Robotics has secured €500,000 in seed funding from Semper Amplifi. uWare Robotics is aiming to revolutionise underwater data gathering for marine conservation a... | More from Tech.eu

🌵 Algae’s second bloom? ‘Resiliency and productivity are key,’ say second generation startups | Between 2005-2012, venture capitalists poured millions into startups attempting to make fuel from microalgae, getting their fingers badly burned in the process. But could algae be gearing up for a second bloom? | More from Ag Funder News

🌎 Development of world’s largest carbon-free green hydrogen plant in full swing | NEOM Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) has achieved financial close on the world's largest carbon-free green hydrogen plant in Saudi Arabia, which will integrate 4GW of solar and wind energy to produce 600 tonnes per day of carbon-free hydrogen by 2026, aiming to revolutionize the transportation and industrial sectors globally. | More from Offshore Energy

More Ocean Sustainability News

Might not be “tech,” that doesn’t mean we don’t love reading these pieces:

🌊 Sener Designs Biofuel Tanker Than Can Capture CO2 from Other Ships | Spanish engineering and technology group Sener said Thursday it had completed the conceptual design of a new sustainable biofuel tanker aimed at suppling biofuels during bunkering operations, that is also capable of capturing CO2 from other … | More from MarineLink

🦾 UK-made subsea robots ‘significantly outperform’ expectations, step closer to commercialization | UK-Based Blue Ocean Seismic Services has completed a set of trials of its autonomous … | More from Offshore Energy

🌎 Four San Francisco Ferries Refit with Cleaner Engines | The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) and Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) announced that WETA’s Gemini Class Clean Air Conversion Project has been completed, resulting in a substantial … | More from MarineLink

⛵️ New Study Confirms Fuel Savings from Norsepower Rotor Sails and Weather Routing | A joint study looking into the operational efficiency of Norsepower’s Rotor Sails has found significant fuel savings when combined with optimal weather routing. For the study, Norsepower worked with leading ... | More from gCaptain

💨 JJ Ugland’s floating wind arm unveils cheaper foundation concept | Norway’s Ocean Ventus has unveiled a new concept that it says will deliver cost-competitive power from floating wind. The company, majority owned by JJ Ugland’s fabricator Nymo, is marketing a floater that is cheaper from start to finish, including production, transportation, assembly and maintenance. Ocean Ventus said its design, which has received approval in principle … | More from Splash 247

🚣 Long Beach releases plan for largest offshore wind turbine facility at any U.S. port | Pier Wind would generate 20 megawatts of energy for the state, helping California move toward a zero-emission future. | More from LA Times

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