Water & maritime tech (2025)

Water and maritime tech hasn’t historically had VCs rushing to turn on the funding taps, but the steady trickle of deals in early 2025 might start to shift that picture. There’s certainly no shortage of water challenges to draw in ambitious founders. More frequent and severe droughts, along with rising awareness of vulnerability underwater infrastructure, are helping push water issues onto the entrepreneurial agenda.

Water scarcity is a growing problem. Heavy-hitting industries like chemicals, textiles, pharmaceuticals and pesticides consume vast amounts of water — and produce a lot of wastewater. As much as two-thirds of Europe’s water bodies are in bad condition, according to a recent report from the European Environment Agency. Startups are raising capital to address the impact of contaminants. Bristol-based Matter, for example, has developed a technology that filters microplastics from wastewater, for recycling. Dutch company Hydraloop raised a €10.5m Series B last year for its fridge-sized home system that allows people to recycle and reuse water in their homes.

Meanwhile, heavy waves and droughts — intensified by climate change — are exacerbating water shortages across the world. A recent Bloomberg report details how investors are starting to make decisions based on water scarcity, just like they do with carbon emissions. This creates an opportunity for startups like London-based Ocean Ledger, which creates analytics tools that help monitor climate-driven coastal threats. It raised a €900k pre-seed round in March.

Startups are also tackling desalination — turning seawater into drinking water — which has traditionally been energy-intensive and expensive. UK-based Core Power, for example, aims to do it cleaner with its nuclear-powered offshore plants. Norway’s Flocean is designing desalination tech that can work on the seabed, which, it says, reduces impact on the marine environment and is less energy-intensive.

And there’s another corner of the water market where VCs feel right at home: software. Oslo-based Catchwise raised a €1.25m pre-seed this month for an AI model that helps fishermen find the best catch zones. Berlin-based Kaiko Systems offers ship managers tools to oversee workflows, connect ships and shore teams and analyse vessel health and compliance data. London-based Orca AI achieved a world-first in 2024 when it logged a 40 hour autonomous voyage for a commercial ship. The company has raised some $38m.

Lastly, with Europe’s defence capacity under pressure — and in the spotlight thanks to US President Donald Trump — expect to see a trend toward unmanned systems to enhance underwater and coastal protection. Guarding critical infrastructure like underwater cables from suspected attacks has become a top priority. It’s hard to get a look at the dark undersea world, but Germany’s North.io is using AI to make sense of the murky data it’s collected below the water line. There are commercial opportunities here too — offshore wind turbine operators, for example, need help determining whether an object encroaching on their turbines is a threat or just a passing dolphin.