Mirai Robotics Raises $4.2M to Autonomize the Seas

Mirai Robotics has secured $4.2 million in a pre-seed round — one of the largest early-stage raises in Italy’s robotics and deep-tech scene — to build autonomous and intelligent maritime systems. Led by Primo Ventures, Techshop and 40Jemz Ventures, the round also drew a mix of Italian and international angel investors.

The startup argues the sea remains a surprisingly under-digitised critical infrastructure. More than 80% of global trade travels by sea, over 90% of Europe’s foreign trade depends on maritime routes, and almost all international internet traffic passes through subsea cables. Yet maritime operations still face high costs, limited continuous observability and heavy reliance on aging human crews.

Mirai intends to address those gaps with a robotics-first approach that tightly blends autonomous vehicles, advanced sensing, AI and industrial-grade control systems. The company says its platforms are built for persistent surveillance, patrolling, monitoring and control, with the aim of reducing human exposure to risk and lowering operating costs versus traditional methods.

Founders Luciano Belviso (CEO), Luca Mascaro (Chief Product & Technology Officer) and board member Davide Dattoli bring industrial and product experience from aircraft manufacturing, large-scale digital product design and tech scaling across Europe. Mirai has already developed two autonomous vehicles targeting ISR and patrolling missions in coastal and offshore settings.

The vehicles combine perception stacks, autonomous navigation, remote control and safety features, and can operate standalone or as part of a distributed fleet. Mirai also offers autonomy, navigation and control modules that third parties can integrate into existing vessels, a strategy that aims to accelerate adoption without full fleet redesigns.

With Italy’s strong shipbuilding and maritime engineering heritage as context, Mirai plans to use the new capital to speed technology development, expand the team and run pilot projects with industrial and institutional partners.