Zeabuz is a spin-off from the leading research community on autonomous vessels at NTNU in Trondheim. Our autonomy technology is field-proven for shortcuts across urban waterways, and we are now searching for long-term investors while preparing for market launch.
Water used to be the main infrastructure for most cities in the world. While roads are filling up everywhere, much of the urban waters are have become highly underutilized. At Zeabuz we want to reverse this trend by introducing a technology platform that makes local waterborne transport an economically viable and sustainable option. Our mobility system, which comprises a combination of a network of small vessels, electric drive, and autonomous operation, is a truly scalable solution fit for many of the world’s urban areas.
Enabling increased flow by utilizing available waterways will allow more people to travel by foot and bike and hence will reduce the need for road traffic and in the end reduce emissions of climate gasses. Another perspective is that dynamic utilization of waterways will reduce the need for new inflexible infrastructures such as roads and bridges, which saves both money, emissions from concrete production, and local footprint.
The Zeabuz urban mobility system will be a compelling and attractive mobility solution for cities globally.
Rough estimates have shown that there is a market for approx. 4000 Zeabuz-like ferries in the EU alone. Zeabuz aims to take a major share of this emerging market.
The company is founded on the idea that passenger transport across urban waters is a highly suitable starting point for commercializing autonomous mobility. In this segment, risks are mitigated by low speeds and high physical margins which also allow us to focus on solving only a few problems at a time while still earning positive returns from the start.
As the Zeabuz technology platform matures in this first segment, we will explore its scaling potential across several dimensions. This means we could branch out and adapt to new opportunities and market demand based on our solid foundation in autonomy, assurance, and mobility solutions. Our autonomy platform can be utilized to deliver Autonomy-as-a-Service which enables entries into new markets, new use cases, and an expansion to more complex operational domains.
Zeabuz is now preparing for launching a commercial pilot in a Scandinavian city in 2022.
Much of the financial structure required is already in place and will be triggered by the entry of a Lead Investor