ARC Marine has secured £2million in funding during its latest round.
Image Credit: ARC Marine
The deal was led by the FSE Group, the appointed fund manager for CIOSIF (The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund) and supported by a US impact VC fund Sustainable Ocean Alliance and two technically experienced angel investors.
ARC Marine is a Cornwall-based business with a vision to restore and protect the oceans for future generations. Its sustainable solutions are based on pioneering science and technology and include the company’s flagship Reef Cubes® - their patented cube structures, designed to create a reef habitat for flora and fauna, enabling them to have maximum adhesion and therefore maximum protection. These can be used to simultaneously support marine conservation, renewable energy infrastructure and habitat creation, as well coastal and shoreline protection, in tandem with Marine Armour® (coastal barriers acting similarly to mangroves) or Marine Matts® (beds of smaller Reef Cubes®, for subsea cable protection).
All ARC Marine® products are manufactured utilising 98% recycled materials and their proprietary, Portland free binder, Marine Crete® - this enables deployments to be left in situ, becoming part of the environment, and avoiding colossal decommissioning costs and further ecosystem degradation. In the past year Arc Marine has deployed Reef Cubes® at sites across the Southwest and the Dutch North Sea, providing valuable research into sustainable aquaculture and oyster restoration.
ARC Marine was founded by a group of concerned divers who wanted to repair fragile and damaged marine ecosystems, by creating sustainable, nature-based solutions. The company has grown into an award-winning marine innovator and in the past year, has been nominated in the prestigious Offshore Achievement Awards in the Emerging Technology and Net Zero categories, alongside inauguration into the Solar Impulse Foundation’s 1000+ solutions to protect the environment. ARC Marine’s technologies are being considered by major blue-chip companies looking to change their ocean footprint and leave a positive marine legacy.
The new £2m funding will be used to create at least six new positions over the next three years to help the business cope with demand. In addition, the funding will help to up-scale the business and ensure more marine habitats are created, which in turn will help to mitigate climate change. Furthermore, to continue to drive climate action, ARC Marine’s solutions are a viable ESG-compliant solution for sustainable investing.
ARC Marine’s Co-founder & CEO Tom Birbeck said of the investment:
“Our success and the subsequent growth of the business means we need more people on board to help continue our goal of becoming the market leader in long-term reef stewardship and nature-inclusive designs. We want other people and places to adopt our models so we can have a profoundly positive impact on the blue economy. We are looking to use this investment to expand our production capability to 3,000 units per day. We are very grateful to CIOSIF for their support and hope they get as much satisfaction as we will by seeing the resulting impact the investment has on the marine environment both in Cornwall and further afield.”