We are very pleased to announce that we have been awarded a second round of funding from Innovate UK!
Marla (trading as Ocean AI Ltd) is one of the 12 innovative companies that have been offered a share of almost £1.85 million of funding from the Innovate UK Marine and Maritime Launchpad in the Great South West.
Dima Karamshuk, Co-founder, Marla: “As a small South West UK business, working on ocean technology we were incredibly lucky for an opportunity to apply and receive this focused portfolio funding opportunity. This grant will allow us to continue executing on our ambitious research and development agenda and bring a novel undersea forecasting solution to market.”
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s innovation agency, working to create a better future by inspiring and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations. With an annual budget of over £1 billion, they provide businesses with the expertise, facilities and funding businesses need to test, demonstrate and evolve ideas, driving UK productivity and economic growth.
Marla has been awarded a share of the marine and maritime Great South West Launchpad. This launchpad provides innovation support and funding tailored to the area’s strengths in marine and maritime.
Kevin Forshaw, Chair, Maritime UK South West: “The South West leads on marine and maritime technology, and the Launchpad is providing a much-needed boost to drive further innovative R&D here for the rapidly growing global ocean economy. Applications for Round 1 detailed exciting developments in Marine Autonomy, Clean Maritime and Digitally Connected Oceans, and Maritime UK South West will be working with partners across the region to shape successive calls in this exciting programme.”
Karl Tucker, Chair, Great South West Partnership: “The Great South West is a world leader in the blue economy, home to cutting-edge marine technologies, the UK’s maritime defence capabilities, marine manufacturing, and world-class research institutions. It’s fantastic to see this recognised with this round of Innovate UK funding, helping our innovative region to make our oceans safer, and drive forward the Government’s net zero agenda.”
About Marla: Forecasting underwater visibility for divers
Variable undersea visibility is an important consideration for planning diving activities in certain countries, like the UK or Australia. Without putting your head under the water, it's difficult to estimate current underwater visibility. Forecasting future conditions is even harder. Seasoned divers have learnt some of the factors that influence visibility in their local dive spots - but they’re still caught out.
UK Scuba diver: “I’m experienced at predicting visibility, but that doesn't mean I’m good at it”.
UK Scuba-diver: “Last week I dived off a boat and had 25m of viz, the best I’ve ever seen! The next morning, the same spot was 8m. I have no idea why it changed!”
Marla co-founder and freediver Dima Karamshuk, moved from London to Devon. With the sea on his doorstep, he started diving more and more. The variable and seemingly unpredictable visibility was really impacting his enjoyment and safety of freediving. Finding no tool that could do the job already, and seeing other divers on social media have the same problem, Dima wondered if there was a way of predicting the visibility using machine learning. Holding a PhD in applied artificial intelligence, Dima held the perfect set of skills to try and solve this problem for divers.
Recognized for its groundbreaking potential, Marla secured its initial funding from Innovate UK as part of the prestigious UK Smart Grants program. 1 year on, Marla leverages cutting-edge machine learning models, satellite data, weather forecasts, and real-time diver reports to craft a state-of-the-art underwater visibility forecasting algorithm. Marla is able to forecast next day conditions with an error of less than a few metres. Marla has researched, designed and developed a software-as-a-service platform, allowing divers to check the forecasted underwater visibility anywhere around the UK coast. Marla’s ambition is global and Marla has already started experimenting with diving visibility forecasts in Australia.
Over the next 6 months Marla is planning to use this new IUK funding to continue improving Marla’s forecasts and creating a valuable tool for 26 million divers around the world.
Forecasting undersea visibility is tough, but we’re up for the challenge. With every divers’ valuable input, we believe in our collective ability to map the undersea conditions across the world’s oceans.
This is just the beginning of our journey!
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