Italian technology company WSense has closed a pre-series B round of €10 million. The company enables what it calls the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) through its subsea Wi–Fi systems that connect signals from devices on everything from floating wind platforms to autonomous underwater vehicles (ASV, AUV), to ships and marine seabeds.
The company, founded in 2012, has a platform that can communicate with and tie together the information from multiple sources and vendors to get a clear idea of the activity in a particular area of the ocean. The company said its technology ensures monitoring over large areas and an extensive surveillance of underwater environments, waterways and marine seabeds.
Indico Capital Partners and SIMEST join existing investors CDP Venture Capital SGR, Blue Ocean by SWEN, RunwayFBU, Axon Partners Group, Fincantieri and Rypples.
“Thanks to the support of leading industrial and financial partners, we will accelerate the development of cutting-edge IoUT solutions for the energy transition, infrastructure security, and the protection of the oceans,” said WSense CEO Chiara Petrioli.
BlueEconomyNews.Earth reached out to WSense to ask for an environmental impact report to understand how the technology impacts ocean ecosystems but had not received a reply. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity, there has been a rapid rise in underwater sound from anthropogenic (human) activities since the Industrial Revolution that has altered the marine soundscape across a broad range of frequencies within the hearing range of marine animals. This includes use of sound for research, seabed mapping, vessels, drilling, dredging, fishing and so forth. This can create noise pollution that may impact or harm sea life.
