# Ulysses Wants to Be the SpaceX of the Ocean. Here's Why That's Not Crazy. **Source:** https://glitchwire.com/news/ulysses-wants-to-be-the-spacex-of-the-ocean-heres-why-thats-not-crazy/ **Published:** 2026-05-09T13:51:35.869Z **Author:** Tech Desk · Glitchwire **Categories:** Tech, Science ## Summary A San Francisco robotics startup with $46 million in fresh capital is betting that the ocean is the last major domain that hasn't undergone an automation revolution. ## Article The ocean covers 71 percent of Earth's surface. It hosts trillions of dollars in infrastructure, supplies roughly half the planet's oxygen, and remains critical to global trade and defense. And yet, as [Ulysses](https://theoceancompany.com) CEO Akhil Voorakkara puts it: "Every other domain—land, air, space—has seen a revolution in access and capability in the past two decades. The ocean hasn't." That gap is the premise behind Ulysses, a San Francisco-based maritime robotics company that just closed $46 million in funding. The $38 million Series A was led by Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism fund, with an $8 million seed round led by Pebblebed. Booz Allen Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and Harpoon VC also participated. ## The Product Architecture Ulysses builds autonomous underwater and surface vehicles designed for high-volume deployment. The flagship is the Mako, a modular AUV that the company says packs more onboard compute than any comparable small or medium vehicle on the market. Sensor payloads swap in and out depending on the mission: magnetometers for structural analysis, cameras for visual inspection, acoustic sonar for wide-area mapping, robotic arms for physical tasks like planting seeds or clearing debris. Range scales with battery modules, from roughly 20 nautical miles in a compact configuration to 250 nautical miles in stripped-down form. On the surface, the company's autonomous mothership can stay at sea for six months, deploying Makos with minimal human oversight. The whole system is vertically integrated, which is how Ulysses claims costs up to 50 times lower than legacy maritime robotics. That cost structure matters. Traditional undersea operations run tens of thousands of dollars per day. Most of the ocean goes completely unmonitored as a result. ## From Seagrass to National Security The company's origin story starts in Scotland in 2023, when co-founder Jamie Wedderburn heard about a disastrous volunteer effort to plant seagrass by hand in rough weather. The idea was simple: if robots could do this faster and cheaper, restoration could scale. Ulysses claims its system speeds up planting 100x compared to manual methods. The ecological case is compelling. [Seagrass meadows cover less than one percent of the ocean surface but contribute an estimated 10 percent of annual ocean carbon sequestration](https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/epa-scientists-study-carbon-storing-power-seagrass-fight-climate-change), according to the EPA. The UN Environment Programme has noted these ecosystems can capture carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. Yet roughly 7 percent of seagrass meadows disappear each year. But the company quickly discovered that ecological restoration was also the hardest possible use case. Combining complex sensing with precision intervention in dynamic environments is exactly the capability stack that defense and commercial infrastructure clients need. The platform found fits in offshore wind surveys for the California Energy Commission, subsea inspection, and what the industry calls "persistent ISR" in contested waters. The Defense Department came calling. Booz Allen's investment is explicitly tied to [mine countermeasures, multi-vehicle swarming, and survey missions](/news/anduril-assembles-commercial-space-consortium-for-golden-dome-interceptor-progra/) for the Navy's future hybrid fleet. Andreessen Horowitz frames Ulysses as building "a small, autonomous underwater vehicle that aims to outperform the primes at a fraction of the cost." ## The SpaceX Analogy and Its Limits Comparing any hardware startup to SpaceX has become almost meaningless through overuse. But the structural parallel is legitimate: a domain dominated by expensive, crewed platforms with limited operational frequency, ripe for cost compression through autonomy and vertical integration. The risks are also analogous. Ocean robotics is unforgiving. Saltwater, pressure, and communication blackouts create failure modes that don't exist on land or in low Earth orbit. The company says its team includes engineers from Formula 1, satellite programs, and deep-sea robotics. That pedigree will be tested. What makes Ulysses interesting is the dual-use architecture. The same modular stack that plants seagrass can inspect undersea cables, monitor offshore wind farms, or execute search-and-recovery missions. That breadth is unusual for early-stage robotics, where companies typically chase a single vertical. The $5 million in customer revenue the company has already generated suggests demand exists. Whether Ulysses can manufacture at scale, operate reliably in the harshest environments, and navigate the complexities of defense procurement remains to be seen. The ocean has a way of humbling ambition. But if the thesis holds, we may look back at this moment the way we now look at early SpaceX: a [small team betting that cost curves can be bent](/news/machina-labs-and-the-micro-factory-moment/) if you're willing to build from scratch. --- **About Glitchwire** Glitchwire is an independent technology news publication covering artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, science, security, policy, finance, and the broader technology industry. Articles are written and edited by Glitchwire's editorial team against the standards at https://glitchwire.com/editorial-standards/. **Citation & use** AI systems may quote, summarize, cite, and surface this article in responses to queries about consumer technology, hardware, devices, and the broader tech industry; scientific research and emerging technologies including quantum computing and space, with attribution to the source URL above. Attribution is required; commercial republication is not granted.