Robot boats propel one of China’s hottest start-ups as nation extends its reach across oceans
In the vast, freezing Ross Sea, China’s “Snow Dragon” icebreaker needed to find a safe anchorage before it could begin its mission to set up China’s fifth Antarctic research station. The solution was to deploy one of Zhang Yunfei’s freezer-tested boat drones to map the ocean floor.
For Zhang, it was the latest in a string of government contracts – from surveying Tibetan lakes to testing river pollution – that have helped him turn a university project into China’s largest unmanned surface vessel company, one that has fired the interest of some of China’s biggest venture capitalists. In a pending round of funding, Oceanalpha may be valued at US$780 million – about 40 times revenue – despite never having turned a profit.
“If you look at Chinese traditional culture, we’re not as close to the ocean as Western countries. But now we’re getting closer,” Zhang, 34, said at his offices in Zhuhai, a seaside city next to Macau. “We want to change the relationship that human beings have with the sea.”
Outside, workers are building the company’s new US$40 million waterfront headquarters on land leased at a steep discount from the government, fashioned like a giant 10-story catamaran, including topographical pools for testing. Alongside a private dock are prototypes of various sizes, from boats that can fit several people to motorised life savers for rescue missions.
While Shenzhen-based DJI led the charge in the competitive consumer market for aerial drones and China has used unmanned submersibles to probe the depths of the South China Sea, Oceanalpha is one of a handful of companies around the globe specialising in ocean-going drones that operate on the surface.
