Navier, a Bay Area-based start-up building electric hydrofoiling watercraft, is announcing a $7.2M seed raise. Co-founded by MIT alumni Sampriti Bhattacharyya, PhD (CEO) and Reo Baird (CTO), Navier is building a new type of watercraft that cuts running costs by 90%. Navier’s approach combines hydrofoils, electrification, advanced composites and an intelligent software system. By unlocking an order-of-magnitude reduction in the cost of operating watercraft.
Boats are going electric and in recent times there have been a few venture backed start-ups working on marine electrification. But the biggest struggle in public adoption is the limited range for electric boats. By using electric hydrofoiling technology, the boats built by Navier eliminate the high hydrodynamic drag and aim to be the longest range electric vessels on the market at high speeds, achieving a 75 nautical miles range at 20 knots.
Reo Baird and Sampriti Bhattacharyya
“Navier is much more than an electric upgrade. We are fundamentally rethinking the boat as we know it. Hydrofoils not only allow electric boats to attain a practical range at high speeds, but they drastically reduce the operational cost of a vessel by a factor of 10X when compared to traditional boats with combustion engines. In addition, they deliver a vastly superior ride quality that eliminates sea-sickness since you’re foiling over the waves,” said Sampriti Bhattacharyya, co-founder and CEO of Navier.
Navier is perfecting its core foil control technology with the Navier 27 (N27), a recreational vessel. However, Navier’s longer term vision is to expand into solving the pressing issue of congestion in coastal cities by building robotaxis on the water.
“Hydrofoil craft are not new, but limitations in technology have restricted their performance and applicability. Hydrofoil craft are analogous to dynamically unstable aircraft, such as the F-35, so intelligent electronic control systems are required for flight. Solving this problem requires collaboration between experts in maritime, robotics and aerospace engineering to bring novel approaches to the challenges. Our team is developing a next-generation foil control system that will achieve unprecedented performance over a wide range of sea conditions,” added Reo Baird, Navier CTO.
Navier 27 sold out its first year of production (15 vessels) within two months of product announcement, and has a massive volume of inbound interest. Navier has also partnered with iconic boatbuilder Lyman-Morse to fulfill the first year of production for the Navier 27. The first two hulls of the model are currently under construction at the Lyman-Morse facility in Maine. The company plans to ramp up production to 400+ units by 2024.
Credits: Navier