ECOsubsea raises US$12 million to accelerate the shipping industry’s green transformation

Hull cleaning to remove biofouling is essential to increase vessel performance, save fuel and reduce emissions. The big differentiator for ECOsubsea’s world-leading technology is that it can clean and capture biofouling in a closed loop system, enabling sustainable cleaning of ships and preventing non-native organisms, toxins and microplastics from polluting marine environments.

Biofouling causes the shipping industry to waste more than 100 million tpy of carbon dioxide and US$20 billion/y. The global cost of invasive alien species is upwards of US$423 billion/y and is a contributing factor in 60% of species extinctions.

“We are leaders in the sustainable hull cleaning space. The current practice of uncontrolled release of hazardous waste into the marine environment is not sustainable. Our service is provided in parallel with port operations, it is compatible with all coating types and can be used on any vessel. This is key to ensure a rapid customer uptake and makes it highly scalable. The support from Swen Capital Partners is supercharging our quest to make sustainable hull cleaning widely available and affordable (providing customers a payback of as little as five days). Our goal is to clean a 400-m container vessel in under 12 hours,” said ECOsubsea CEO, Tor M Østervold.

Submerged robotic ‘vacuum cleaners’ move over the ship’s hull, gently removing biofouling and capturing the debris in a multi-layered processing system. The closed loop system protects local biodiversity from pollutants and alien species. The merits of ECOsubsea’s technology have been demonstrated on more than 1000 vessels in the most stringent environmentally regulated ports, servicing all major shipping segments, including containers, cruise, RoRo, bulkers, tankers, Navies and offshore rigs.

Julie Peyrache, Investment Director of Paris-based SWEN’s Blue Ocean fund, added: “We’re thrilled to be supporting ECOsubsea in its commercial development and applaud their vision to make a positive impact on the oceans. This major investment occurs at a unique moment when both the company and the market are at an inflection point. The impact on fuel consumption reduction and on the spread of invasive species (one of the main causes of Earth’s ongoing biodiversity crisis) is immediate. This Series B is the first step to expand the activity and we hope to get more investors onboard to accelerate the global reach of ECOsubsea.”

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/lng-shipping/04102023/ecosubsea-raises-us12-million-to-accelerate-the-shipping-industrys-green-transformation/