Hydromea

Hydromea builds underwater robotics, wireless communication and propulsion hardware aimed at monitoring submerged infrastructure. Its starting argument is that operators of submerged assets currently rely on human interventions and cabled solutions, which translates into high operational costs, higher failure rates, CO2 emissions and human safety risks, and that the subsea industry is tangled in cables and tethers. The response is to cut the cord, fusing autonomous vehicles with high-bandwidth, low-power wireless communication so that asset integrity data can be acquired affordably and at scale, making digital twins of submerged infrastructure practical. The range has three parts. LUMA is a family of wireless modems, sold in variants including 100, 250 and 500 models and a flex version, used to move data underwater without a physical link. EXRAY is an inspection robot, described as the company's flagship ROV and as a tetherless system that can itself act as a communications relay for an inspection drone, letting operators keep real-time control and receive live HD video without a physical tether. That is aimed at confined spaces and complex submerged structures where tethered systems face operational limits, and at reducing reliance on divers, large support vessels and tether management systems. NAVIA is offered alongside EXRAY, with payloads and a build-your-own configurator. On the propulsion side, DISKDRIVE is a range of hubless thrusters and D-FIN is a motor controller. The operating concept the company describes combines these elements: AI-powered autonomous robots collect visual and NDT data of submerged infrastructure, AUVs harvest gigabytes of data from subsea sensors via low-power communication nodes, a robotic swarm performs quick perimeter geophysical or environmental quality missions, a wireless broadband network relays sensor data in real time to a data offload point connected to a satellite network, and high-bandwidth WLAN gives low-latency connectivity between an AUV and an onshore Remote Operation Center. Markets are split by product. LUMA is sold into offshore energy, infrastructure security and marine science. EXRAY is sold into hydropower, industrial and municipal waters, aquaculture, defense, offshore energy and infrastructure security. Distribution includes a partnership with MFE Offshore, which became an official distributor of the underwater robotics line for customers across offshore oil and gas, offshore wind, marine infrastructure and climate science. Reported milestones include a subsea-to-satellite link achieved with Equinor, described as a world first for subsea wireless broadband, and an AUKUS grant won with FAU. To size the opportunity the company cites a 2024 DNV report projecting a tenfold increase in submerged infrastructure over the next 20 years, notes that the lifecycle cost of a submerged IoT sensor is over 100 times that of one on the ground, and says it cuts by a factor of 1000 the nine days that acoustics needs to offload one gigabyte of data underwater.