BROOKLYN, N.Y., June 11, 2025 — Bedrock Ocean Exploration, a Brooklyn-based startup building autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for seafloor mapping, has raised $25 million in a Series A-2 funding round led by Primary and Northzone. The company confirmed the round included participation from Autopilot, Costanoa Ventures, Harmony Partners, Katapult, and Mana Ventures.

The ocean covers over 70% of Earth’s surface, yet remains largely unmapped compared to the moon. High costs, technical barriers, and environmental sensitivity have slowed progress. Bedrock Ocean says its AUVs offer a more agile and less disruptive alternative to traditional mapping vessels.

Brandon Mah, Chief Operating Officer of Bedrock Ocean, said the company’s vehicles are built in-house and priced under $1 million each. “The pot at the end of the rainbow that everybody has been chasing for 20 years has been, can we replace traditional ships?” Brandon said.

The battery-powered AUVs run independently for up to 12 hours using sonar and magnetic sensors to collect seafloor data. While still deployed from a ship, the subs operate autonomously below the surface. Two of them can match the output of a conventional ship, and a single 40-foot vessel can carry more than 10 AUVs.

Data collection is stored onboard and partially processed in transit. Once surfaced, the AUVs transmit the data via Wi-Fi to the ship, where it is then sent to the cloud using a Starlink antenna. This allows real-time observation and the ability to flag areas for deeper analysis.

“We can confirm that the data is of the quality that we’re targeting, as well as identify potential targets that we want to investigate further in near real time,” Brandon said.

Traditional ship-based sonar surveys often involve high-powered pulses that can disturb marine life. Bedrock Ocean’s sonar operates at lower power and a frequency less likely to affect marine mammals. Sailing just five to 10 meters above the seafloor, the AUVs avoid placing animals in their path.

Brandon acknowledged that Bedrock’s AUVs cannot match the sub-meter accuracy of ship-based GPS surveys. Without GPS access underwater, the subs rely on inertial navigation, yielding one- to two-meter precision. But Brandon argued that not every survey demands sub-meter accuracy.

“For many seafloor operations, the speed of data collection and delivery is more valuable,” he said, citing offshore wind developers as an example. While they may require high-precision surveys for initial planning, faster follow-up surveys with slightly lower accuracy can be sufficient during construction.

Over the past two quarters, Bedrock has conducted paid survey work for offshore wind, oil and gas, and environmental monitoring. The company's ability to quickly map and deliver usable data has caught the attention of the U.S. Navy.

“We showed off that capability,” Brandon said. “They were kind of blown away.”