Explosion in Deep Sea Robots, the Hardest Series A Round Emerges
Deep-sea robotics startup Deepsea Zhiren has secured over 5 billion yuan in its Series A funding, a landmark deal backed by prominent investors including GGV Capital, Dachen Capital, Genesis Capital, Everbright Capital, China Life Insurance Investment, CETC Investment, and the energy tech fund managed by Cathay Capital with TotalEnergies as the cornerstone LP. Existing investors also participated significantly.
The company, founded by industry veteran Ma Yiming, specializes in developing heavy-duty work-class ROVs for extreme deep-sea environments up to 6,000 meters, used in oil and gas, offshore wind, and subsea cable operations. Its product line includes models like "Taurus" (1,000m), "Phoenix 600" (3,000m), and "Singularity" (6,000m). A key achievement is securing multi-million dollar orders from UAE's telecom giant Etisalat, marking a breakthrough for Chinese-made deep-sea robotics in the international market.
Deepsea Zhiren differentiates itself through full-stack in-house R&D—from pressure-resistant structures to control systems and AI—and a modular hardware approach. It has built a comprehensive internal standard system aligned with top global offshore specifications. The company is now advancing its "Deep Matrix" initiative, an unmanned, AI-powered, multi-robot cluster system designed for permanent seabed operations. This system aims to drastically reduce reliance on support vessels and human operators, potentially cutting costs in offshore oil field operations by billions over their lifecycle.
The funding round signals strong market confidence in the deep-sea tech sector, recently highlighted in China's national policy. With the global subsea services market valued at around 1.5 trillion yuan and growing over 20% annually, Deepsea Zhiren aims to redefine deep-sea development through integrated hardware and embodied AI systems, positioning itself as a global pioneer in ocean robotics.
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