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JaiaBots are intended to work in fleets to gather data in aquatic operations. | Source: Jaia Robotics

Jaia Robotics, a company developing micro-sized autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for data collection, announced that it brought in over $1 million in seed funding. 

The company aims for JaiaBot to be a low-cost, multivehicle system that can be user configured for a wide range of capabilities. The software for the company’s robots is fully open source and accessible using gpl and lgpl licenses. 

JaiaBots are micro-sized, autonomous, hybrid surface and subsurface vehicles. They’re designed for manned or unmanned vessel launched operations and shore operations. The system has a simply designed and intuitive user interface.

Each JaiaBot weighs 4.5 lbs and is 33 inches long. The robots can reach a max speed of 5 m/s and a max depth of 330 ft. JaiaBots have a maximum surface range of 9 miles, and a sub surface range of 3 miles. 

JaiaBots can be coordinated in fleets ranging from one to 20 vehicles to cover wider areas in smaller amounts of time. They can collect data in lake, river, estuarine and coastal environments. 

Launchpad Venture Group led the seed funding round alongside Blue Angels, Cherrystone and Walnut. The company has also received funding in the past from Beacon Angels and several individual investors. 

“Close one of our Series Seed Round is extremely timely as we build our team to seize the opportunity to democratize aquatic data collection at scale and grow the business. I would like to thank Launchpad, Blue Angels, Cherrystone, Walnut, and Beacon Angel groups as well as the individual investors for their belief in Jaia Robotics and our disruptive approach of using pods of low-cost aquatic drones to deliver big data,” Estaphan Owen, co-founder and CEO of Jaia Robotics, said. “This investment in Jaia Robotics is a strong show of confidence in the company as an investment opportunity and has led us to keep the round open for 90 days leading to a second close to bring us nearer to the $1.75M ceiling. This will allow us more flexibility and to really accelerate growing our team.” 

Jaia was founded in December 2020 by Estaphan Owen and Jason Webster (now the CTO). The company was born from a passion for protecting the environment and finding way to affordably collect data that helps us better understand our impact on it.