Participated · Equity · May 2025

Saildrone develops unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) powered primarily by wind and solar that carry sophisticated sensors and proprietary AI to monitor the maritime environment above and below the surface. Its Voyagers deliver long-duration operations measured in months and support use cases including border protection, critical infrastructure security, and hydrographic survey. The company has sailed more than 2,000,000 nautical miles and spent over 50,000 days at sea across the High North to the Southern Ocean. Saildrone is expanding its operational footprint in Europe and will establish a European headquarters and operational hub in Copenhagen, Denmark. As part of that expansion, it plans to roll out maritime intelligence services to multiple NATO countries and provide 24/7, year-round coverage for critical infrastructure in the Baltic and North Sea. The company recently closed a $60 million financing to accelerate these European deployments and defense partnerships. Saildrone develops and operates autonomous science vessels (USVs) used for ocean mapping, data collection, and marine intelligence. Its fleet has collectively traveled half a million miles and is deployed on missions that would be too dangerous or tedious for human crews, including a NOAA project that sent a vessel into a hurricane. The company’s newest craft, the Surveyor, can spend a year at sea and map the ocean floor beyond two miles of depth. Saildrone positions its systematic data collection to support scientific research, ship routing, and sustainable aquaculture as the ocean economy grows. To capture more of the emerging 'ocean domain intelligence' market it plans to scale production, hire "data insight teams," and expand go-to-market functions. The recent funding is intended to accelerate that scaling and further development of its fleet. Saildrone develops and operates a fleet of unmanned surface vehicles (ocean drones) to collect high-resolution ocean observations. The company sells ocean infrastructure and data used for weather analysis, fisheries management, and in‑situ ocean science. It has partnered with US agencies including NOAA and NASA and announced a multi‑year collaboration with Australia’s CSIRO, opening operations in the Southern Ocean from Hobart, Tasmania. Saildrone recently opened a 200,000 square foot advanced manufacturing facility in Alameda, California to support scale‑up. The company plans to use new capital to scale its global fleet and monitor the state of the planet in real time. Since its commercial debut in 2016 the company has raised almost $90m in total. Saildrone operates wind- and solar-powered unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) that collect ocean and atmospheric measurement data. The company’s fleet has sailed over 60,000 nautical miles on missions in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Bering Sea. Leadership is led by founder and CEO Richard Jenkins with Sebastien de Halleux as COO. Saildrone plans to use new capital to expand its fleet, enhance data processing capacity and scale commercial operations. The company closed a $14M Series A to support those plans. Prior to the round it received a mission-related investment from The Schmidt Family Foundation.