How Bubble Robotics is Building the Ocean’s Autonomous Workforce, Powering Industries, Ecosystems, and Maritime Security
- Karan Bhatia
- 8h
- 2 min read
Bubble Robotics, building ocean robotics and AI for offshore resilience, led by Jean Crosetti, Patricia Apostol, and the team, has raised a $5 million pre-seed round led by Episode 1 Ventures, Asterion Ventures, and Norrsken Evolve, following its launch out of Entrepreneurs First.
Founded in 2025 by former robotics engineers from NASA and ETH Zürich, Bubble is building an autonomous ocean workforce, robotic systems designed to operate continuously at sea for months without human intervention.
The Ocean Is the Next Frontier
The ocean is central to energy, trade, data infrastructure, and climate resilience, yet offshore operations remain outdated, reliant on vessels, crews, and equipment costing up to $100K per day, making them expensive, risky, and hard to scale. A growing workforce shortage further compounds the challenge.
Bubble’s approach replaces this model with autonomous systems that remain at sea continuously, enabling 24/7 inspection, monitoring, and data collection without human presence.
From Vessels to Persistent Infrastructure
“Most offshore inspection costs come from vessels and crews,” said Jean Crosetti. Removing that dependency enables continuous, lower-cost, and safer operations.
Advances in robotics and AI now allow persistent autonomous systems at sea, improving the monitoring and security of critical infrastructure.
Alice Bentinck of Entrepreneurs First highlighted the team’s strong technical and commercial execution, positioning Bubble Robotics as a company to watch.
Robotics-as-a-Service for the Ocean
Bubble operates a robotics-as-a-service model, eliminating upfront CAPEX and offshore mobilization while reducing costs, addressing workforce shortages, and increasing inspection frequency and data coverage.
Its systems support a wide range of use cases, from energy infrastructure monitoring and seabed mapping to climate research and maritime security, including anomaly detection and continuous surveillance.
Inspired by satellite constellations, Bubble is building a persistent underwater data infrastructure, already seeing strong demand with over $4M in signed LOIs and upcoming deployments across offshore wind, security, and subsea assets.
