Whitehaven-based maritime robotics startup ScrubMarine has raised $1 million in a pre-seed round to develop autonomous systems for cleaning and inspecting ship hulls.

The company is aiming to reduce the fuel and emissions hit caused by biofouling and the funding will help it to complete its prototype and grow engineering teams in Whitehaven and Edinburgh, as it works towards pilots with major operators.

The round was led by PXN Ventures and SFC Capital, with backing also from industry figures including Graham Westgarth and Colin Greene.

ScrubMarine is developing two platforms – “The Turtle”, a compact hull-cleaning robot that captures inspection data; and “the Whale”, a surface system designed to deploy and recover the robot without divers or port infrastructure.