Autonomous Ocean-Mapping Company Raises $25M

Autonomous underwater mapping company Bedrock has raised $25.5 million to develop its suite of underwater robots and accompanying digital platform for ocean mapping. 

The investment round was co-led by global VC firm Northzone and Primary Venture Partners, with significant participation from Valor Equity Partners, and existing investors Eniac, Quiet Capital and R7. 

The latest financing round brings its total funding to $33.5 million.

According to the company, the money will be used to bring its products to the offshore wind market, developing its unmanned autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for inspection and maintenance capabilities on offshore wind turbines.

Founded in 2020, Bedrock said its AUV technology and cloud data platform work to provide more cost-effective and environmentally friendly seafloor exploration and mapping capabilities, using high-frequency sonar – which does not disturb surrounding wildlife – to create its detailed maps.

Over time, Bedrock says it will build the "largest library of seafloor data" and a free, publicly available map of the ocean floor.

“Bedrock’s mission is to accelerate ocean exploration by developing the technology needed to build the most accessible and complete ocean dataset,” said Anthony DiMare, Bedrock CEO. “Our goal is to provide accelerated innovations at sea to rapidly advance the collective understanding of oceans, remove bottlenecks in critical infrastructure projects, and provide valuable data insights necessary for stakeholders to make lower-risk and impactful decisions.”