Bubble Robotics, a company building persistent autonomous systems for underwater operations, has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding to develop what it describes as the ocean’s autonomous workforce. The round was co-led by Episode 1 Ventures and Asterion Ventures, with participation from Norrsken Evolve and Angel Invest, following the company’s origins at Entrepreneurs First. The raise is also backed by experienced operators in offshore energy, maritime, and defense, alongside institutional partners across Europe and the United States.
Founded in 2025 by robotics engineers Jean Crosetti and Patricia Apostol, Bubble Robotics was born out of the Entrepreneurs First program, where the pair combined deep technical expertise in robotics with commercial acumen around a shared belief that offshore operations were ripe for reinvention. Apostol brings a technical background from NASA and ETH Zürich, while Crosetti brings commercial and operational experience.
The company argues that the ocean is one of the most critical and least automated frontiers of the 21st century, underpinning offshore energy, critical infrastructure, carbon storage, and maritime security, yet underwater operations remain episodic, expensive, and dependent on vessels and crews that cannot scale to meet growing demand. Today’s offshore operations can cost up to $100,000 per day, with vessels and crews accounting for roughly 80 to 90% of offshore inspection costs. The maritime sector also faces a projected deficit of approximately 600,000 professionals by 2030, underscoring the urgency for automation.
Bubble’s system has two main parts: BubbleDock, a docking station launched from shore or a vessel that can remain in place for up to six months, and BubbleBots, underwater robots that carry out ongoing inspection missions. The platform combines autonomous docking, long-duration persistence, and low-cost underwater navigation to deliver continuous, high-resolution digital twins of subsea assets and environments. The company operates under a robotics-as-a-service model, providing full operational capability without upfront capital expenditure or offshore mobilization, allowing industrial operators to simultaneously reduce costs, address workforce shortages, and increase inspection frequency and data coverage.
The company’s target use cases span offshore energy, where the systems enable monitoring and inspection of foundations, cables, pipes, and turbines, as well as climate and biodiversity applications including benthic mapping, photogrammetry, and long-term ecosystem monitoring, and maritime security and defense, enabling detection of acoustic anomalies, mine countermeasures, and continuous surveillance of critical underwater infrastructure.
Bubble Robotics already has over $4 million in signed letters of intent from customers in offshore wind, maritime security, and subsea infrastructure, indicating strong early commercial interest ahead of its first deployments. Proceeds from the round will fund accelerated development, expansion of the engineering team across Europe and the United States, and deployment of the company’s first resident systems in real-world conditions.
KEY QUOTES:
“The current model is episodic. You send a vessel out, gather data and then leave. But the ocean is dynamic. Important changes happen between those missions, and we simply don’t see them.”
Jean Crosetti, CEO and Co-Founder, Bubble Robotics
“One of EF’s unique strengths is creating the environment for exceptional individuals to meet and build great companies. Jean and Patricia formed a team at our kick-off weekend around a shared belief and complementary skillset: Patricia with world-class technical credibility in robotics, Jean with unusual commercial instinct and intensity.”
Alice Bentinck, Co-Founder, Entrepreneurs First
