Online Oceans raises £4m to scale autonomous surface fleets

Image courtesy Online Oceans

The round also includes participation from investors, including Peter Rive, co-founder of SolarCity, Frank Thieser and Florian Seibel, founders of Quantum Systems and Koro Capital.

Online Oceans is building a new model for persistent maritime coverage. Its autonomous surface vessel, Scout, and fleet command platform, Tether, enable operators to deploy dense, always-connected fleets for missions including anti-submarine warfare, protection of subsea infrastructure, border security and counter-drug smuggling.

Maritime security is becoming more urgent as governments and operators face rising pressure to protect critical waters, monitor strategic chokepoints and secure subsea infrastructure. Yet, persistent coverage remains prohibitively expensive with existing systems. 

Existing approaches rely on crewed vessels with high operating costs or autonomous systems too expensive to deploy in dense fleets, making coverage intermittent rather than continuous. 

Online Oceans has designed its system from the outset around a different model: low unit cost, long endurance and continuous connectivity, combined in a platform built for fleet-scale deployment rather than one-off missions.

Online Oceans was founded in early 2025 by George Morton and Alistair Douglas. George brings maritime engineering and defence-adjacent operating experience, while Alistair leads the company’s command-and-control software and fleet systems. Together, they have moved from first builds to production ramp in little over a year.

At the centre of the company’s offering is Scout, a compact solar-powered autonomous surface vessel designed for persistent deployment at scale. Scout is paired with Tether, Online Oceans’ cloud-based command-and-control platform, which allows operators to manage missions, monitor assets and access data in real time. Together, they give governments and commercial customers a practical way to move from occasional, high-cost missions to persistent maritime coverage at scale, while also creating the foundation for recurring software and data revenues.

Where traditional approaches make coverage sparse and intermittent, Online Oceans enables dense, always-connected fleets that can monitor multiple locations simultaneously and support a growing range of defence, maritime domain awareness and ocean data applications.

The company has already secured initial customers across defence, maritime domain awareness and ocean data, begun first data sales and sold out the first few months of production ahead of commercial deliveries in April 2026.

The new funding will be used to scale manufacturing, support deployments and expand the company’s ability to serve growing demand across defence and commercial markets. Online Oceans is building from Europe, where the strategic need for persistent maritime monitoring is especially acute but the company’s ambition is global: to become a leader in persistent maritime infrastructure.

George Morton, Founder and CEO of Online Oceans, said: “Persistent maritime coverage has been too expensive for too long. That has limited what governments and operators can actually see, protect and respond to at sea. We built Online Oceans to change that. This funding allows us to scale production and support customers who need a far more practical way to monitor critical waters, protect infrastructure and maintain awareness over long periods.”

Maureen Haverty, Investment Principal at Seraphim Space, said: “Online Oceans is building a category-defining company at the intersection of defence, maritime autonomy and data. The breakthrough here is not just a lower-cost vessel. It is a new coverage model: dense, persistent fleets that can monitor critical waters continuously rather than sporadically. 

"What impressed us was not just the technical insight but the speed of execution. In little over a year, the team has moved from founding to production ramp, early customer traction and first data sales. We believe they have the potential to build a global leader in this category. ”