{"id":649699,"date":"2025-12-23T04:55:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T04:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/649699\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T04:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T04:55:17","slug":"edinburgh-startup-secures-800000-for-ship-scrubbing-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/649699\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh\u00a0startup secures \u00a3800,000 for ship scrubbing robots\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AN EDINBURGH-BASED robotics startup has secured around \u00a3800,000 to build autonomous ship scrubbing robots.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ScrubMarine\u00a0develops autonomous hull-cleaning and inspection robots that target biofouling, the build-up of algae,\u00a0barnacles\u00a0and slime on ships\u2019 hulls.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This growth increases drag, driving up fuel consumption and emissions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Based in the Lake District and now in Edinburgh, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scrubmarine.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">company <\/a>was founded by Rohith Devanathan while he was still a student.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.deadlinenews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2048px-Zoom_sur_le_biofouling_dune_coque_de_bateau_Ifremer_00567-67892_-_43664-1-e1766418526408.jpg?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"596764\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #596764;\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"green build up on bottom of ship\" class=\"wp-image-1253149 not-transparent\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2048px-Zoom_sur_le_biofouling_dune_coque_de_bateau_Ifremer_00567-67892_-_43664-1.jpg\"\/><\/a>Biofouling on the hull of a ship. Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cOur robots\u00a0are able to\u00a0perform their purpose on anything steel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis includes ships, sub-sea cabling, oil and gas infrastructure, but also above sea infrastructure such as bridges.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company has secured funding of just under \u00a31m through venture capital and angel investments since it was founded at the end of 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Private investors include Graham Westgarth, former president of the UK Chamber of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deadlinenews.co.uk\/tag\/rosyth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shipping<\/a>, and Colin Greene, a former Apple country chief executive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The funding round was also backed by the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, which supports early-stage companies across the north of England.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ScrubMarine\u00a0is\u00a0developing two different machines.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The first is the Turtle,\u00a0a lightweight autonomous system that clings to a ship\u2019s hull and removes biofouling using cavitation technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A larger unit, nicknamed the Whale,\u00a0is designed to transport multiple Turtle units to offshore vessels and retrieve them without the need for crewed boats or port infrastructure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The system is intended to serve ships\u00a0operating\u00a0offshore, including in sectors such as offshore wind, oil and\u00a0gas\u00a0and superyachts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Born in Chennai and raised in Edinburgh, Devanathan completed a robotics degree at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deadlinenews.co.uk\/2025\/11\/19\/heriot-watt-unveils-co-chairs-to-lead-35m-fundraising-bid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Heriot-Watt University<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Having grown up in Leith and lived\u00a0on McDonald Road, he was keen to grow the company\u2019s Edinburgh operations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was at university that Devanathan met co-founder Clyne Albertelli, who was researching robotic systems for maritime use.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AN EDINBURGH-BASED robotics startup has secured around \u00a3800,000 to build autonomous ship scrubbing robots.\u00a0\u00a0 ScrubMarine\u00a0develops autonomous hull-cleaning and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,762,3694,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-649699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-heriot-watt-university","12":"tag-robotics","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115767104288323012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}