The Niçoise Cosma startup, specializing in the mapping of seabed by autonomous drones and artificial intelligence, has just completed a fundraising of 2.5 million euros. Its objective is to accelerate the industrialization of its drone fleet, strengthen its AI -based analysis platform and structure its commercial deployment on a European scale. This operation marks a strategic step for this young company, born in 2022, which aims to establish itself as a reference player in automated marine environmental monitoring.
Coming from the Deess project, Cosma is developing a rupture technology based on the use of swarms of autonomous underwater drones capable of mapping several square kilometers of high resolution seabed. These data, continuously transmitted to a proprietary cloud platform, make it possible to model benthic ecosystems and detect protected species, sensitive habitats and anthropogenic pressures. The approach, based on standardized and reproducible collection, aims to offer scientific, industrial and institutional actors a reliable and evolutionary reading of underwater dynamics.
Winner of the IFREMER Innovation Prize in 2022, Cosma was hosted in the robotics laboratories of the Oceanographic Institute in La-Seyne-sur-Mer. The company pilots several research projects applied in collaboration with the CNRS and academic institutions, in particular on absolute positioning in underwater environment and the evaluation protocols of biodiversity.
The round table was co-directed by the Wind and Ternel funds (formerly Maif Avenir), with the participation of 50 Partners Impact, Ifremer, and the Côte d’Azur Savings Fund. The raised funds will make it possible to finalize the production of a first series of drones, to strengthen the processing capacities of the AI platform, and to support commercial operations with European public and private markets. A dozen drones are currently being assembled.
Cosma is headed by Frédéric Mitaine, founder and president, a graduate engineer of Télécom Paris et des Ponts, with more than fifteen years of experience in the acquisition and analysis of geophysical and acoustic data within actors like ASN, Fugro or CGG. He is surrounded by Yannick Penneçot, Director of Operations, Robotics and Geophysics Marine Engineer, Quentin Chenevier, Data Director and Expert in Artificial Intelligence, and Laura Huguenin, Scientific Manager, Doctor of Marine Biology specialized in benthic ecology.
The company, which currently employs ten people, achieved a turnover of 150,000 euros in 2024. It began its marketing phase with a first customer base in France and abroad. At the end of this lifting, the founders retain 65 % of the capital and the Ifremer holds a 10 % stake.
