24AUG

Oshen triples its ocean robot line

1 min read

16:40UTC

Plymouth marine-robotics company Oshen raised £3.65m to triple production of the small autonomous craft it already sells to two navies and the Met Office.

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Key takeaway

Oshen is scaling C-Star production against live orders from the Royal Navy, the US Navy and the Met Office.

Oshen, a Plymouth marine-robotics company founded in 2022 with fewer than 30 staff, raised £3.65m led by Lunar Ventures, with AlbionVC, Twin Track and Concept Ventures participating⁠¹. The money triples the production rate for its C-Star robots, small wind and solar powered craft that cross open ocean in swarms carrying sensors.

Oshen sells to the Royal Navy, the US Navy and the Met Office. Persistent ocean sensing has historically meant crewed vessels or moored buoys, both expensive and both fixed in what they can cover; a swarm of small autonomous craft trades individual capability for coverage and endurance, and it is the endurance that makes the economics work for a weather service and a navy at the same time.

The constraint on a company like this is manufacturing rather than demand, which is what the raise is aimed at. Tripling a production line for a physical product means tooling, supply agreements and people, and the round is small enough that all three have to be got right first time. Plymouth is becoming a place where that is possible: Helsing committed £350m to a plant in the city in July, and the supplier base and skilled labour that follows a commitment of that size is available to everyone building marine hardware nearby.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Oshen is a small company in Plymouth, fewer than 30 staff, that builds ocean-sensing robots called C-Star: small, wind and solar powered craft that travel across open ocean in groups, carrying sensors that collect data. Oshen raised £3.65m, led by Lunar Ventures with AlbionVC, Twin Track and Concept Ventures also investing. The money will let Oshen triple how many C-Star robots it can build. Its customers already include the Royal Navy, the US Navy and the Met Office, Britain's national weather service. A company this small selling directly to two navies is unusual: most British defence hardware suppliers are much larger and further removed from a regional workshop.

What could happen next?

Precedent
A company of fewer than 30 people selling operational sensing directly to two navies shows a shorter route from regional workshop to defence programme than most British hardware suppliers take.

Sources:UKTN

Mentions:Concept Ventures →Royal Navy →US Navy →Helsing →Plymouth →

First Reported In

Update #14 · UKRI's sponsor department no longer exists

UKTN· 24 Aug 2026

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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.