Celebrating Cohort V: Reflection on Demo Day 2025
BlueSwell Cohort V founders pose before delivering pitches to attendees. Photo credit to Jonathan Clancy at Blue Wave Imagery.
The BlueSwell Program, run in partnership by SeaAhead and the New England Aquarium, achieved a major milestone on Thursday, March 6th with our largest Demo Day to date, drawing over 300 registrants. The evening brought together corporate partners, startups, investors, academics, and community members celebrating Cohort V’s graduation. The event featured pitches from each cohort member and a reception inside the Aquarium’s main building.
Undersecretary Ashley Stolba, Guest Speaker, delivers her opening remarks to the Demo Day audience. Photo credit to Jonathan Clancy at Blue Wave Imagery.
The event began in the Aquarium’s Simons Theatre with opening remarks from Ashley Stolba, the Undersecretary of Economic Foundations at the Executive Office of Economic Development.
Stolba works to ensure that Massachusetts is a leader in innovation and economic growth, overseeing the Community One Stop for Growth and Business Front Door initiatives. She reminded the room that Governor Maura Healey signed the historic Economic Development Bond Bill in November, authorizing $1 billion in climatetech investments over the next decade. This bill demonstrates the state’s commitment to supporting startups such as those in Cohort V by underlining climatetech innovation as a prime area for investment. Team Massachusetts has learned a great deal from the success of the life sciences sector, and we anticipate and hope that this bill will fuel the same momentum in the bluetech sector.
Letise LaFeir welcomes the audience to Demo Day and underscores the interplays between biodiversity and innovation. Photo credit to Johnathan Clancy at Blue Wave Imagery.
Letise LaFeir, the Aquarium’s first Chief of Conservation and Stewardship, highlighted the importance of Cohort V’s novel technologies in advancing conservation efforts. Using technology to improve systems while supporting biodiversity and mitigating ocean impacts benefits everyone.
Alissa Peterson, CEO and co-founder of SeaAhead, emphasized that supporting and investing in groundbreaking blue innovation is essential to a bright blue future for all, stating: “Each startup that you see tonight demonstrates that innovation inspired by and for our ocean is exactly what we need right now more than ever... We firmly believe that shareholder returns and the health of our coral reefs are not mutually exclusive, and we hope to reinforce and demonstrate that to you today.”
Cohort V’s seven startups took the stage to pitch their solutions and answer some questions. Here are some key takeaways from their pitch decks highlighting the progress these startups have made:
ARMADA Marine Robotics, led by co-founders Jeff Kaeli, Robin Littlefield, and Rusty Warren, is bringing scalable infrastructure to marine monitoring via an array of highly maneuverable underwater drones, allowing for an efficient and flexible new method to collect vital ocean data. With $2.5 million in non-dilutive funding, the team is developing key component technologies to enhance their existing systems.
Coastal Measures demoing their technology implemented on third party hardware. Photo credit to Johnathan Clancy at Blue Wave Imagery.
Coastal Measures, founded by Josh Humberston and Neil Schonwald, offers an AI-powered data hub, CUMULUS, that enables customers to standardize and unify diverse sensor data streams to gain unprecedented insight into environmental behavior through an intuitive user interface. Customer discovery has shown that CUMULUS not only reduces data management costs for sensor vendors but also delivers instant, actionable insights to data users without the need for complex analysis. The platform has multiple recurring users and through customer discovery efforts, the team is actively expanding across markets like insurance, renewable energy, and coastal resilience. They are raising a $1.2 million investment to meet customer demand by expanding their team with 3.5 full-time positions.
"The program connected us with industry and investors. We’ve been part of panels and boards, and we’ve made all the connections that were necessary to move our business forward. We’ve gotten new clients because of BlueSwell.” - Josh Humberston, Coastal Measures
Crewless Marine’s acoustic monitoring demonstration unit. Photo courtesy of Axios Boston.
Crewless Marine, founded by Steven Bordonaro and Philip Caspers, provides solutions to enable uncrewed maritime platforms to detect, classify, and track entities in the ocean using passive acoustics. Through customer discovery, they identified data fusion, design tools, and digital twinning as critical areas lacking commercial solutions. Crewless is positioning itself as the solution that integrates these separate technologies into a comprehensive system. The company has evolved from offering experimental arrays and a small standalone sensor to developing large arrays with custom directional hydrophones.
Dottir Labs, founded by Nili Persits, is building advanced, real-time sensing systems for monitoring inland aquaculture and other aquatic environments. The company expanded its focus to include Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) in the aquaculture industry, marking a strategic entry into a new market. Additionally, Dottir Labs is developing a mobile demonstration system, enabling the team to initiate piloting projects with potential clients more efficiently. While the company's primary focus remains on aquaculture, it has plans to diversify its applications to water treatment, food & beverage, and bioprocesses.
“You learn a lot from mentors and industry experts, but you learn most of it from people going through the same thing with you. It’s wonderful to not be alone in what I will admit is one of the hardest journeys one can pursue in their career.” - Nili Persists, Dottir Labs
HydroPhos displays their filter material and prototype. Photo credit to Johnathan Clancy at Blue Wave Imagery.
HydroPhos Solutions, represented by co-founders Derek Long, Daisy Burns, and Matt Oriente, and founded by seven recent graduates from the University of New Hampshire, is utilizing filtration technology to extract phosphorus from wastewater and resell it in a form that is directly usable in fertilizer, addressing eutrophication and the global phosphorus shortage. They have a test bed at a local university, a pilot at a brewery, and have plans for an additional pilot at a distillery. They reported an impressive 97% phosphorus removal rate from their solution (as of Demo Day). Finally, they've secured $195,000 in non-dilutive funding and $120,000 in investment.
Kai Pono Solutions demonstrates their patented storm drain filtration system. Photo Courtesy of Axios Boston.
Kai Pono Solutions, founded by Navy McKee, is replacing conventional stormwater drainage with a high-performing filtration system that can be placed in the curb and gutter line. The company filed a non-provisional patent in August 2022. With three pending contracts and Trash Capture Certification from the California State Waterboard, Kai Pono has unlocked piloting potential and preliminary customers. A pilot site in Makena, Maui is providing valuable data on the system's effectiveness in capturing contaminants such as total suspended solids, diesel, motor oil, and phosphorus. Kai Pono is raising a pre-seed round to support the manufacturing of additional units, and they have successfully raised $75,000 in non-dilutive funding to date.
WATABOT’s team explains their demo to onlookers. Photo credit to Johnathan Clancy at Blue Wave Imagery.
WATABOT, co-founded by Qinmin Zheng, Wenzhe Peng, and Ivan Kuraj, is revolutionizing water quality management by integrating advanced sensors, cutting-edge robotics, and AI to provide real-time, accurate monitoring and early warning systems for harmful algal bloom and other water contaminants. WATABOT recently launched its robot for harmful algae monitoring, with plans to deploy ten units by May 2026. The company has established pilot agreements with several lake management companies. Beyond its current capability to detect harmful algal bloom early, WATABOT aims to enhance its technology by adding an eco-friendly solution to neutralize these blooms and expand into saltwater environments. To support this development, the company is currently raising a $1 million pre-seed round.
Cohort V also marked the first instance in which every startup brought demonstrative technology to the aquarium. This allowed attendees to interact with the solutions presented and ask questions. Please watch the video below to hear more from our founders about their transformative journey in the BlueSwell Program.
ABOUT BLUESWELL:
The BlueSwell Program, a partnership between SeaAhead and the New England Aquarium, supports founders as they commercialize their innovations by bridging the gap of funding and mentorship. BlueSwell leverages SeaAhead’s bluetech domain expertise, network, and experience in building companies, and the Aquarium’s 50-plus year history of using marine science to protect the ocean and marine animals to ultimately convert ocean-focused concepts into profitable, sustainable businesses. Bluetech ventures have substantial potential for impact. We believe that encouraging this type of innovation requires a dedicated and focused support infrastructure.
To learn more about BlueSwell, click here.