Bedrock Ocean Exploration, PBC
Richmond, CA public benefit corp. that builds and operates its own 300 m-rated survey AUVs and delivers seabed data via its Mosaic cloud platform.
Bedrock Ocean Exploration, PBC (Bedrock) is a US company that designs, builds and operates its own fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for seabed survey and sells the resulting data and intelligence to offshore energy, subsea infrastructure, defense and ocean research customers. It was founded in 2020 by Anthony DiMare and Charles Chiau and is based in Richmond, California. Bedrock is organized as a Public Benefit Corporation, and its stated public-benefit goal is a free, publicly available map of the world's oceans 50 times more detailed than the best current public map. It is a partner of the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project and the Great Lakes Observing System's Lakebed 2030 initiative. In April 2026 Bedrock appointed Matthew Tirman, formerly of satellite-imagery company Satellogic, as CEO, while Chiau, who had held both CEO and CTO roles, continues as founder and CTO.
The company describes its platform as vertically integrated in three layers. The first is its AUV fleet, a second-generation vehicle optimized for nearshore geophysical survey. According to Bedrock's published fleet specification, it is rated to 300 m, is 2.4 m long and weighs 60 kg in air. It surveys at 3 knots on a 3 kWh swappable custom lithium-ion battery and fits in two cases for air transport. Navigation uses an Exail Phins 9 Compact INS with 0.02% distance-travelled (CEP50) DVL-aided accuracy, a Nortek DVL500 Compact, a u-blox ZED-F9P GNSS receiver and a NORBIT FLS-42 forward-looking sonar. Communications run over Iridium, Wi-Fi, ISM radio and acoustic modem. Two payload configurations are offered. The first pairs a NORBIT OEM MBES-42 WBMS multibeam (400 kHz, 512 beams over 130 degrees) with a Starfish 454 OEM side-scan sonar and an Ocean Floor Geophysics self-compensating magnetometer. The second swaps the multibeam for a NORBIT SBP-42 parametric sub-bottom profiler for UXO and cable surveys. Bedrock rates the system for IHO Special Order data to 60 m and Order 1A to 140 m water depth.
The second layer is Trident, a cloud-native command-and-control system for goal-based mission execution and fleet monitoring over the horizon. The third is Mosaic, a cloud data platform and API that processes survey data and delivers a seabed baseline and change-detection layer to customers. The AUVs perform onboard QA/QC and pre-processing, and send quick-look products to operators via Starlink. Bedrock runs multi-vehicle operations, first demonstrated with two AUVs mapping adjacent sections in December 2023. Because its vehicles use small, low-power sonars close to the seabed, it says surveys avoid incidental-take authorizations and protected-species observers, and that the system is not ITAR-restricted.
Bedrock's 2024 Proof of Technology program enrolled ten organizations, including Orsted, Avangrid, Equinor, Geo SubSea, SEARCH and the University of West Florida. In August 2024 it surveyed off San Diego during the US Navy's Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (Coastal Trident), mapping wrecks, an outfall pipe and Navy-placed targets. Technology partners include NORBIT, Exail and PlanBlue (alliance announced October 2025), and the company has partnered with Integer Technologies on autonomous undersea solutions for the US Navy. In August 2026 Bedrock signed a multi-year partnership with First Marine Solutions in Aberdeen to station a complete AUV kit there as a UK and European hub. In a North Sea rig-entry debris survey launched from a spot-hire supply vessel, FMS reported savings of about 92% against an anchor-handler-plus-ROV spread. Bedrock says it operates in the Gulf of Mexico, the UK and the North Sea.
Bedrock raised an $8 million seed round in March 2021 from Eniac Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, Quiet Capital and R7. In July 2023 it closed a $25.5 million Series A co-led by Northzone and Primary Venture Partners with Valor Equity Partners, bringing total funding to $33.5 million.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
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Contact Bedrock Ocean Exploration, PBC
WEBSITE
https://www.bedrockocean.com/HEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
2020
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Early-Stage VC
Funding Total
-
Keywords
