Kraken Moving Forward with OceanVision™ Project

Kraken Robotics Inc., announces that its wholly owned subsidiary, Kraken Robotic Systems Inc., has been conditionally approved by the Ocean Supercluster to move forward with its OceanVision™ project.

OceanVision™ is a three-year, $20 million project focused on the development of new marine technologies and products to enable an underwater robotics data acquisition and data analytics as a service business. This will be a turnkey service solution for ultra-high definition seafloor imaging, mapping and analytics, including simultaneous acquisition of ocean environmental and marine habitat data.

The Ocean Supercluster will provide an investment up to a maximum of $5.9 million to the OceanVision™ project. This is subject to, among other things, finalizing additional project funding from industry stakeholders, strategic partners and government agencies. Kraken believes the project could grow as additional stakeholders, technologies and products are added to the project scope. Kraken is targeting to finalize the contracting process with all project participants by the end of Q3 2019.

CEO Comments

Karl Kenny, Kraken’s President & CEO said, “We are both delighted and grateful for this financial support from the Ocean Supercluster for our OceanVision™ project. OceanVision™ is a unique business model, offering a combination of sensors, underwater robots, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Under OceanVision™, clients do not need to purchase expensive data acquisition hardware and analytics. Instead, they can lease the robotic devices to acquire the ultra-high-resolution subsea data that they need. The data captured by robots across different locations can be stored in a cloud-based system and accessed by humans.”

“This will ensure seamless data access without disrupting the existing workflow. Customers can leverage robots to engage their resources into more human-intensive processes such as decision-making and processes requiring more analytical thinking. While OceanVision™ is still in an embryonic stage of development, it is already driving exciting domestic and international opportunities. With a growing focus on productivity challenges and a deep understanding of the operational environment, we expect OceanVision™ will help accelerate innovation and disrupt antiquated business models in many industries across the ocean technology community.”

Industry Stakeholder Comments

“This is a big step in our journey to sustainably grow Canada’s ocean economy through collaboration – we are very pleased to share this news with Kraken. This project embodies what the Ocean Supercluster seeks to accomplish in the sustainable development of Canada’s ocean economy – bringing together multiple partners across different ocean industries to collaborate and strengthen the Canadian ocean supply chain. This is a level of synergy we haven’t seen before now, and it demonstrates that if we work together to leverage our collective expertise, we can transform Canada into a global hub for collaborative cross-sectoral ocean innovation.” – Kendra MacDonald, CEO, Ocean Supercluster

“Petroleum Research Newfoundland and Labrador (PRNL) would like to congratulate Kraken on the selection of OceanVision™ as the first project for Canada’s Ocean Supercluster. We’ve successfully worked with Kraken on other projects, and are very pleased to partner with them again. This project has the potential to significantly advance our capability to acquire high quality ocean information to support multiple ocean industries, including offshore oil and gas. We are excited to once again be working with Kraken, and now the Ocean Supercluster and other industry partners to realize the full potential of this project.” – Alan Clarke, CEO, PRNL

“The Nunavut Fisheries Association (NFA), which represents the 100% Inuit-owned commercial offshore fishing industry in Nunavut, is very pleased to partner with Kraken Robotic Systems Inc., Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and our other industry colleagues on this important OceanVision™ initiative under the new Ocean Supercluster. Addressing the huge marine data gaps in the north will require the development of leading-edge technologies, as envisaged under this initiative, to address the cost and coverage issues we face throughout our region.” – Lootie Toomasie, Chair, NFA

“Ocean Choice International (OCI) is excited to partner with Kraken and other industry groups on the OceanVision™ initiative as the inaugural project funded under Canada’s historic Ocean Supercluster. The data collected, interpreted and analysed under this program will help further inform decision-making in our offshore fishing operations leading to continued improvements in efficiencies and sustainable fishing practices”. – Martin Sullivan, CEO, OCI

“Clearwater Seafoods is happy to collaborate with Kraken and other industry partners on this multi-sectoral innovation project, which has been made possible by Canada’s Ocean Supercluster. The technologies to be developed and the data that will be collected will serve the multiple partners and contribute to the long-term sustainability of our industry.” – Tony Jabbour, VP Fleet and Harvesting Operations, Clearwater Seafoods