BubbleRobotics raises $5.3M seed

Bubble Robotics said on April 21 that it raised a $5 million pre-seed round to build autonomous underwater robots for offshore inspection, monitoring and data collection. (bubble-robotics.com) The round was led by Episode 1 Ventures, Asterion Ventures and Norrsken Evolve after the company launched out of Entrepreneurs First. Bubble lists Paris, San Francisco and Zürich in its announcement. (bubble-robotics.com) (roboticsandautomationnews.com) Bubble was founded in 2025 by Jean Crosetti, a former Apple and Tesla engineer, and Charles Mahe, a former Tesla and SpaceX engineer. The company says it is building resident robotic systems that stay at sea continuously instead of being sent out on one-off vessel missions. (bubble-robotics.com) (founderstoday.news) That model targets a basic offshore problem: inspections are usually done by ships and human crews, which are expensive and intermittent. Bubble said 80% to 90% of offshore inspection costs still come from vessels and crews. (bubble-robotics.com) (roboticsandautomationnews.com) Bubble says its robots are meant to sit near offshore assets and inspect, monitor and collect data around the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. On its website, the company says the systems are aimed at safer and cheaper operations without ships or onboard crews. (bubble-robotics.com 1) (bubble-robotics.com 2) The company is pitching the technology to offshore energy, maritime infrastructure and defense customers. Tech Funding News said Bubble is also offering the service with no upfront cost, though that commercial detail was not included in Bubble’s own announcement. (techfundingnews.com) (bubble-robotics.com) Investors in the round include operators with backgrounds in offshore energy, maritime and defense, alongside institutional backers in Europe and the United States, according to the company. Crunchbase also lists Bubble Robotics as an active company focused on advanced underwater robots. (bubble-robotics.com) (crunchbase.com) The pitch is simple: replace periodic ship-based inspections with a resident robotic fleet that keeps watch underwater. The new funding gives Bubble capital to try to turn that model into a working offshore business. (bubble-robotics.com)