Apeiron Labs gets $29M to flood the oceans with autonomous underwater robots

Apeiron Labs, founded in 2022 by Ravi Pappu, is addressing the longstanding challenge of gathering detailed subsurface ocean data, which has traditionally been expensive and slow, relying on costly ships and limited autonomous rovers. The company develops low-cost, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that can travel vertically up to 400 meters, collecting data on temperature, salinity, and acoustics once or twice daily. These compact AUVs, measuring three feet long and weighing just over 20 pounds, can be deployed from boats or airplanes and integrate with a cloud-based operating system to log data and refine ocean models in real time. Recently, Apeiron Labs secured $9.5 million in Series A funding led by Dyne Ventures and other investors, enabling the company to scale production and deployment of its AUVs. The devices are spaced 10 to 20 kilometers apart to form arrays that provide higher-resolution ocean data than traditional ship-based methods. Apeiron envisions applications