DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY
Oshen Raises $5m to Scale Autonomous Ocean-Sensing Technology
The Plymouth robotics company is expanding manufacturing of its small autonomous surface vessels as demand grows from navies, meteorological agencies and ocean science programmes.
Oshen, a Plymouth-based robotics company building small autonomous surface vessels for persistent ocean monitoring, has raised $5 million (approximately €4.27 million). The round was led by Lunar Ventures with participation from AlbionVC, Twin Track and Concept Ventures, alongside angel investors joining the company in an advisory capacity. Oshen said the capital will fund a threefold increase in manufacturing output.
Founded in 2022 by Imperial College engineers Anahita Laverack and Ciaran Dowds, Oshen operates constellations of C-Star craft: 1.2-metre wind- and solar-powered robots light enough to be launched over the side of a boat by one person. The company says the vessels sail for months without maintenance, transmit data by satellite, and can disperse for wide-area coverage or converge on a single area of interest.
What the funding will support
Oshen said production has moved from 15 units built over three years to 15 every six weeks, using a standardised assembly process the company says a new technician can learn in under half an hour. A further 100 craft are on order. The new capital is directed at manufacturing scale and at three areas where the company reports the strongest customer demand: passive acoustics for vessel detection, protection of subsea infrastructure, and anti-submarine warfare applications.
The company reports that its customers and partners include the US Navy's Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the Royal Navy, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Met Office, Météo-France and the Swedish ocean-monitoring body VOTO. Under a project supported by the UK's Defence and Security Accelerator, C-Star craft are being trialled as a distributed passive acoustic network with ZeroUSV and MarineAI, including an autonomous launch at sea from an uncrewed mothership.
In September 2025, working under contract with NOAA, three C-Star craft entered Hurricane Humberto north of St Thomas while the storm was rated Category 5; Oshen says the data contributed to the National Hurricane Centre's forecast discussion and describes the transit as a first for an uncrewed surface vessel. A 50-craft constellation is being deployed in the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre under a £2 million project funded by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). The company's longest single mission to date is eight months at sea, and it sells through three models: data-as-a-service, vessel leasing and outright constellation sales.
Why it matters for private capital
Maritime domain awareness has become a sovereign capability question for European states, driven by concern over subsea cables, pipelines and vessels operating without transponders. Oshen's proposition — large numbers of inexpensive, attritable sensors in place of a small number of high-value platforms — reflects a wider procurement shift that has drawn private capital into UK defence and dual-use technology. Investors considering the sector should note that revenue in this segment is typically programme- and contract-led, with timing determined by government budget cycles rather than commercial demand.