After twenty weeks of mentorship, six startups in the third cohort of New England Aquarium and SeaAhead’s BlueSwell incubator program are graduating. BlueSwell, the Northeast’s first dedicated, comprehensive early-stage bluetech incubator, aims to support the creation and growth of companies whose work has the potential to significantly impact ocean sustainability and global resilience.

The program—with startups from Current Lab, centered on underwater weather forecasts to Berkeley Marine Robotics, focused on maritime decarbonization, and Radmantis, an environmental engineering company developing AI-enhanced fish management solutions—culminates with Demo Day. During Demo Day, the group of entrepreneurs have a chance to showcase their companies, demonstrate their progress since the program’s start, and make the connections needed to keep building on their success. Each company will give a concise pitch (think Shark Tank, minus the judges) where they introduce themselves, their company, and their future plans and needs. Bonnie Lei, head of environmental justice, employee engagement, and ecosystems at Microsoft and founding member of AI for Earth, will keynote.

The event will be streamed virtually on Friday, February 10, at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Register here to watch the Demo Day event. All the founders will be available for a live Q&A session after the presentations.

The Graduates

Aloft Systems Inc. – Making clean, renewable, and free wind energy available for any ship’s propulsion system, reducing fuel consumption and emissions immediately.

Berkeley Marine Robotics – Focused on maritime decarbonization by using autonomous underwater robotic systems and communication technologies to help ships lower fuel CO2 emissions and ports protect marine ecosystems.

Fathom – Reducing risk and uncertainty to enable better monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon removal in the ocean.

Current Lab – The underwater weather forecast. Current Lab’s high detail ocean forecasts improve the efficiency and safety of maritime operations.

Ocean Data Network – A data collection service outfitting fishing vessels to provide oceanographic information in difficult-to-monitor ocean shelves, and delivering the findings in real-time to improve ocean models and operational forecasts.

Radmantis – An environmental engineering company developing AI-enhanced fish management and leveraging robotic fish handling for the protection of natural resources, smart fisheries, and improved seafood production with precision aquaculture.

BlueSwell Entrepreneur Exhibit

On the evening of February 9, Aloft Systems, Inc (founded by cohort members Miles Keeney-Ritchie and Satchel Douglas) will set up a prototype of their innovative sail on the Aquarium’s Central Wharf plaza to showcase its functionality to investors. The company aims to make clean, renewable, and free wind energy available for any ship’s propulsion system to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Their modular, autonomous sails can be added to a vessel that isn’t designed to be sail-powered. They deploy or stow themselves automatically, based on wind conditions, decreasing the training needed to use them. The sail on the plaza will be a quarter-scale prototype. The company’s next step is a full-scale, shipping container-sized pilot unit: 53 feet long, eight feet wide, and nine feet tall.