Companies making a difference

Nautica Technologies, founded by ETH alumni Cédric Portmann and Mina Kamel in Switzerland, develops an autonomous robotic hull cleaning system (HYDRA) for maritime vessels. HYDRA addresses biofouling, which increases drag and fuel consumption, enables the spread of invasive species, and traditionally requires costly dry dock downtime or the use of toxic anti-fouling paints. The system operates fully autonomously during regular port calls, without any crew or dive teams, while capturing complete hull condition data for every mission.

Why we invested in NAUTICA

Biofouling contributes significantly to fuel consumption in global shipping, while conventional anti-fouling solutions cause significant ecological damage to marine ecosystems. The founders' ETH Zurich engineering background gives NAUTICA strong technical credibility, and their product design addresses the operational constraints that competing solutions fail to meet. This combination of documented economic ROI, a clear B2B revenue model and strong ecological impact made NAUTICA a natural fit for our portfolio.

Founder Spotlight

Give us the 1 sentence pitch for your startup.

Cédric: Nautica Technologies builds autonomous swarms of maintenance robots that make maritime shipping cleaner, faster, and more efficient.

What impact are you aiming for?

Cédric: By proactively cleaning ship hulls, we reduce hydrodynamic drag and fuel consumption, helping large vessels save thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

How did you start your company?

Cédric: While much of the robotics world was focused on flying drones, Cédric specialized in underwater robotics during his studies at EPFL and first discovered the hull-cleaning use case through private boat owners on Lake Zurich. A mutual friend introduced him to Mina, who had just exited a company building aerial maintenance drones. The fit was obvious, and Nautica was started shortly after.

What have been your biggest challenges as a startup so far?

Cédric: Hull cleaning has traditionally been treated as a compliance activity, with divers cleaning ships periodically. With high-frequency autonomous cleaning, we turn it into a performance lever that can unlock significant fuel savings. That required a mental shift from our clients: from pricing based on the service we provide to pricing based on the value we create. We addressed this through extensive trials, transparent calculations, and hard evidence of the benefits of our technology.

What have been your biggest personal challenges as founder so far?

Cédric: One of the biggest personal challenges has been staying calm and focused while building a company in a hard, slow-moving industry with very high technical and operational complexity. I try to tackle this by staying close to customers, being honest about what we know and what we still need to prove, and surrounding myself with people who challenge me while still being fully committed to the mission.

How does PiC help you achieve your vision?

Cédric: PiC gives us the freedom to execute when we know what to do, and shows up with real value when we do not. The regular exchanges with Til have become a kind of mental gym for me: helping me get sharper, more resilient, and grow as a founder.

What do you like most about working with PiC?

Cédric: When things get messy, it is good to know who you can call and who will actually pick up and fight alongside you.

Go to NAUTICA's Website