ELWAVE, an industrial designer and manufacturer of innovative electromagnetics sensors for the underwater and industrial robotics, announced today that it has completed its first capital raise. The funds will support the company’s global growth ambition, industrialization and commercialization of its first products for underwater robotics.

The funding round was led by SOFIMAC Innovation with co-investors Litto Invest Fund and Atlantique Vendée Innovation Fund. Bpifrance and banks have completed this capital raise with other financial supports. This equity financing comes as ELWAVE scales to meet strong demand in the underwater robotics, especially for wind offshore market and underwater autonomous vehicles (AUVs).

ELWAVE was founded in 2018 to valorize more than 10 years of top-level academic research on the « electric sense » technology from the Biorobotic Laboratory of Institut Mines Telecom Atlantique. Electric sense (or active electrolocation) is an electromagnetic perception mode used by tropical fishes living in muddy and cluttered waters in which vision and acoustic perception are inefficient.

Based on this biomimetics approach, ELWAVE solution is the only one to provide a real-time 360° perception for underwater and industrial robots, either remotely piloted and autonomous ones. ELWAVE technology can detect, locate and characterize (shape, size, metallic or non-metallic) any type of objects in simple and complex environments. ELWAVE will develop dedicated and market focus solutions. ELWAVE is especially completing a solution for the tracking of buried objects in underwater sediments such as cables, pipelines or mines.

Providing unmatched performances by other classic acoustic and magnetic technologies, ELWAVE currently works with leading underwater robotics companies such as TOTAL, SAIPEM, SUBSEA7, IXBLUE, NAVAL GROUP and others for the development of its solutions and their implementation on client’s vehicles.

The financing will enable ELWAVE to industrialize and commercialize its first products and to pursue its developments in electronics and artificial intelligence. Shallow water applications, such as wind offshore cables inspection, UxO detection (unexploded mines from World War I and II) and ROV/AUV navigation are first targeted.

“We are thrilled by the support of ambitious, successful investors who see the disruptive potential of electric sense technology to increase safety and productivity of operations in high-growth markets such as offshore wind” says Pierre Tuffigo, CEO and founder of ELWAVE.

For more information, please visit www.elwave.com