A Houston-based company that creates autonomous subsea robots, software for subsea robotics and provides related services will become a publicly listed company thanks to its merger with special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
Nauticus Robotics, founded by ex-NASA engineers, is expected to be worth about $560 million once it merges with CleanTech Acquisition Corp, the SPAC, and the combined company will have the ticker symbol KITT on NASDAQ. The merger was announced Dec. 17 and is expected to close in the first half of 2022.
Nauticus’ robots are powered by cloud-based autonomy software, allowing the machines to operate in capacities that current robots cannot. Its first product offering, for example, is billed as the world’s first tetherless underwater robot capable of making decisions both for long-distance ocean data collection and close-up manipulation of underwater machinery.
Existing subsea robots are notoriously clunky and expensive and they emit greenhouse-gases, said Nicolaus Radford, Nauticus founder, chairman and CEO. They require large vessels that have operating costs as high as $100,000 a day and fuel emissions of up to 70 metric tons per day. Nauticus’ robots will nearly eliminate those greenhouse gas emissions, will slash the number of workers needed to oversee its work and are 50 percent cheaper to operate compared to the traditional robots, Radford said.
Radford said the company’s management will remain unchanged.
“The passion and conviction of our team at Nauticus has fueled the creation of a truly disruptive and innovative company in the ocean space, and we are eager to take the next step in our growth trajectory as a public company. A substantial core of our team has been together, first starting at NASA and now at Nauticus, for 15 to 20 years and I am inspired by their relentless pursuit toward this dream,” he said. “The ocean will be the epicenter in our fight against climate change, and the offshore ocean services industry has signaled the beginning of a major technology revolution to combat it.”
Special purpose acquisition companys have become a new fixture on Wall Street, helping private companies go public. SPACs are created for the sole purpose of acquiring or merging with an existing company to take it public. Among companies taken public via SPACs this year include BarkBox, a subscription company for dog owners that delivers monthly packages of treats and toys; ChargePoint Holdings, an electric vehicle charging company; and Grab Holdings, a tech company based in Southeast Asia that represented the largest SPAC merger of all time with a valuation of more than $37 billion.
The CleanTech Aquisition Corp., the SPAC that will merge with Nauticus, was created specifically to join forces with a business working to reduce carbon emissions.
“(CleanTech Aquisition) was created to find a great business that has a positive impact on the world’s carbon footprint. We set a high bar for ourselves and could not be more impressed with Nic and the entire Nauticus team,” said Eli Shapiro, CEO of the SPAC. “We believe Nauticus’ (robot as a service) model has the potential for strong returns while operating in a market in dire need of disruption.”
shelby.webb@chron.com
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