Drone startup Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering raises $2M to advance seagrass restoration

Autonomous marine drone startup Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering has raised $2 million in Pre-Seed funding.

Their first suite of products focuses on making seagrass restoration cheaper, faster and larger in scale to improve ocean biodiversity and remove gigatons of carbon radically. 

However, habitat loss is a key driver of ocean health decline, with 7 per cent of seagrass meadows lost every year, and restoration is expensive. 

In response, the Irish-founded company is automating the restoration of marine habitats such as seagrass. 

The company has developed low-cost, high-performance autonomous marine drones that reduce the cost of restoration by 10x while making projects 100 times larger and faster. 

I spoke to co-founder and CCO Will O’Brien to find out more.

The power of seagrass on ocean biodiversity 

Seagrass is known for its positive impact on biodiversity and powerful carbon removal capabilities, capturing 35 times more carbon than rainforests. 

These underwater meadows store about 10 per cent of the ocean's carbon despite covering only a tiny fraction of the seabed. 

Seagrass meadows also support ocean diversity, providing habitats for countless marine species, including endangered ones like seahorses, turtles, and manatees. Additionally, seagrass meadows improve water quality by filtering out harmful nutrients and reducing pathogenic bacteria. They also protect coastlines from erosion and storms by stabilising sediments and dissipating wave energy.

New laws mandate for large-scale restoration, like the EU’s Nature Restoration Law, and the growing demand for blue carbon (carbon removed by restored seagrass meadows).

However, according to O’Brien :

“Traditional methods involve divers going down and manually collecting seeds by hand. Then, they process the seeds on land. Then, they go back into the ocean and plant them by hand.

 Divers are limited by how much time they can dive per day for health and safety reasons. 

Additionally, they are limited by weather. In comparison, our technology doesn't face these limitations and can move much quicker than humans.”

Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering drones collect seeds from healthy donor meadows, replant them in areas where seagrass has been lost, and then monitor their growth. 

Partnerships drive large-scale ecosystem recovery

 Governments are the main customers for ecosystem restoration services alongside non-profits and  supporting corporations. 

O’Brien shared: 

"At the trial stage, we assess the efficacy of our approach to restoration. We try to understand the optimal conditions for restoration (time of year, density of planted seeds, location, etc.). 

Once we have established this, we can scale up our projects relatively simply by deploying more drones.”

The autonomous marine drone startup has partnered with The Nature Conservancy and governments in Florida and Australia to conduct large-scale ecosystem restoration projects. 

They have demonstrated successful seagrass restoration in trials with the University of Western Australia. 

O’Brien shared that the purpose of restoring seagrass meadows in Western Australia is to assist with local biodiversity efforts. 

“Seagrass is a crucial habitat for local fish species like pink snapper and crustaceans like crabs."

Later this year, the company will begin work on a project in Western Australia with the University of Western Australia (UWA) that is poised to become one of the largest seagrass restoration projects in the world, a project they are dubbing “Gigameadow One".

“Our trials with UWA have shown that our restoration method has significantly higher growth and germination rates than traditional methods.”

Modular design enables economies of scale

The company has managed to keep their drones at a competitive price point by taking advantage of economies of scale and technological advances that have reduced the cost of similar technologies, e.g. electric cars for batteries, smartphones, FPV drones, and robot vacuums.

O’Brien shared: 

“We also have a fundamentally different approach to other players in the market. We've chosen to engineer our drones to go to a maximum depth of 300 metres, which significantly reduces costs. 

“Our drones have been designed for mass manufacturing from day 1. We do this with a modular architecture. This means we can achieve economies of scale quicker as we scale our production.”

Lowercarbon Capital led the round, which included Superorganism, the world’s first biodiversity VC, and ReGen Ventures, an investor in planetary-scale regenerative technologies. Angel investors, such as Eoghan McCabe and Ciaran Lee, founders of Intercom, also contributed.

Ryan Orbuch, Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, added: 

“Ulysses’ underwater drones make seagrass planting 10x cheaper and are ready to scale restoration efforts today.”

The main challenge of any startup is convincing ecosystem players of the efficacy of their tech. According to Akhil Voorakkara, CEO and co-founder of Ulysses:

"We've proven that autonomous restoration can reverse this trend at a fraction of the traditional cost.

If you’re a marine scientist, a conservation group, or a government agency ready to move beyond pilot projects to landscape-scale restoration, reach out to us. The solutions exist - now it's time to deploy them."

The company plans to use the funding to make key hires in its engineering and go-to-market teams and ramp up production in preparation for some exciting projects in 2025.

Lead image: Ulysses Co-Founders (Left to Right: Colm O’Brien (Chief Engineer), Jamie Wedderburn (CTO), Will O’Brien (Chief Commercial Officer), Akhil Voorakkara (CEO). Photo: Dylan Cannyghin.