The blue economy is not just an energy story.
It is also a story about the people who work at sea, the ecosystems that coastal industries depend on, the pollution accumulating in ports and waterways, and the security threats that put all of it at risk. The seven ventures in the Blue Economy Operations, Circularity & Maritime Resilience cluster of the AquaSphere 2026 Cohort are working on the operational layer of the blue economy, the systems, services, and technologies that keep maritime activity sustainable, safe, and accountable.
🇹🇷 Vessel X : Autonomous surface vessels for marine pollution control
Marine pollution monitoring and cleanup remain largely manual, reactive, and fragmented. Vessel X has built an AI-powered autonomous unmanned surface vessel platform, Vatoz, that automates both. Using computer vision, sensor fusion, and physics-informed AI, Vatoz detects and collects floating waste while continuously monitoring coastal conditions and generating environmental datasets for ports, municipalities, and coastal operators. The platform supports harbour cleaning, hydrographic surveys, environmental inspection, and coastal monitoring, transforming a traditionally reactive process into a data-driven, continuous service.
🇪🇸 Mediterranean Algae : Algae-based bioremediation for ports and coastal waters
Coastal and port waters are increasingly affected by eutrophication and nutrient pollution, forcing operators into costly, chemically intensive treatment systems. Mediterranean Algae Technologies has developed a nature-based alternative: modular algae biofilter systems that remove excess nutrients, capture CO₂, and improve water quality using selected macroalgae species combined with IoT monitoring. The approach is low-energy by design and the biomass generated is commercially valorised in cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and biomaterials, turning an environmental liability into a revenue stream. The team has been recognised in Forbes 30 Under 30 and holds a European Commission Seal of Excellence.
🇬🇷 Health4Crew : Digital healthcare for seafarers
Seafarers work in one of the world’s most isolated and highrisk environments, yet healthcare at sea has remained fragmented, reactive, and difficult to document. Health4Crew provides 24/7 telemedicine and digital health services built specifically for the maritime context, combining round-the-clock medical support with a proprietary platform for clinical decision-making, crew health monitoring, and structured reporting. The system helps shipping companies reduce unnecessary medical deviations and repatriations, lower overall healthcare costs, and strengthen ESG and HSEQ reporting with real-time data supporting both individual care and fleet-level management.
🇬🇧 SeaGrown : Multi-trophic aquaculture for ocean restoration
Seaweed and shellfish cultivation has the potential to improve water quality, sequester carbon, and enhance biodiversity but conventional long-line farming struggles with offshore survivability, scalability, and co-existence with other marine industries. SeaGrown has developed Kelpedo™, a modular Multi-Trophic Aquaculture system engineered to operate in harsh offshore conditions including the North Sea, and designed from the outset to work alongside offshore renewables, commercial shipping, and port development. Beyond food production, SeaGrown provides nature-based environmental solutions, carbon removal, biodiversity uplift, and water quality improvement, for industries that need to demonstrate credible marine impact.
🇩🇰 BlueShadow ApS : Maritime security as a service
Hybrid threats, illegal fishing, and subsea infrastructure sabotage are inflicting billions in damage on maritime economies, yet most coastal security tools remain reactive, fragmented, and built for a different threat environment. BlueShadow delivers Maritime Security as a Service through five integrated mission solutions, covering IUU fishing monitoring, critical infrastructure surveillance, counter-UAS detection, commercial asset protection, and real-time risk intelligence, all running on a single AI platform that fuses satellite, AIS, radar, and signals intelligence into a live operational picture. Autonomous UAV and USV systems are deployed to investigate and deter threats before damage occurs.
🇲🇹 Recycllux : Satellite-powered marine litter management
Up to 70% of macro-plastics in port waters remain unmonitored, creating a growing operational, regulatory, and reputational burden for port and marina operators. Recycllux has built an end-to-end marine litter management platform combining Copernicus Sentinel satellite Earth Observation, AI-powered hotspot detection with over 80% accuracy, and blockchain-enabled traceability to turn pollution management into a structured, verifiable service. An asset-light model, coordinating existing local fleets rather than deploying dedicated vessels, achieves a 46-fold reduction in operational carbon footprint versus traditional cleanup methods. Validated at TRL 6 through a paid pilot on the Romanian Black Sea coast, Recycllux is expanding across the Black Sea and Mediterranean.
🇮🇳 Aeronero : Atmospheric water generation
Access to safe drinking water remains one of the most persistent infrastructure challenges globally, with over 60% of the world’s population projected to face water stress by 2050. Aeronero has developed a patented atmospheric water generation technology “ ConDessa Technology™ “ that extracts moisture from ambient air and processes it through a five-stage condensation, filtration, mineralisation, and sterilisation cycle to produce clean, alkaline drinking water. The system is available in modular units ranging from residential scale (20L/day) to industrial deployments (475L+/day), operates independently of groundwater or grid infrastructure, and has already generated nearly 22 million litres of water across 252 deployments. ISO and WHO GMP certified.
These seven ventures operate across very different domains, from autonomous robotics to ocean farming, from crew health to coastal security. What they share is a focus on the operational and ecological foundations that make a sustainable blue economy possible: cleaner water, healthier ecosystems, safer working conditions, and more accountable maritime industries.
They are part of the AquaSphere 2026 Cohort, 20 deep-tech ventures from 14 countries across 4 continents, supported by the AquaSphere Accelerator Programme, funded by the European Union, EIT RawMaterials, and the EIT Higher Education Initiative.
👉 Discover the full cohort at aquasphereproject.eu
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