Ocean Exchange Awards $330,000 in Prizes to Blue Economy Startups

13 November 2025

Winners of the 2025 Ocean Exchange Awards (Left to Right): Ocean Enterprise Award: NeuralX, Masake Nakada, and Neptune Awards: Cecilia, Kathryn Carpenter, and Orpheus Ocean, Jake Russell. (Image credit: Ocean Exchange)

The Ocean Exchange, a leader in supporting the acceleration of innovative solutions for healthy oceans and the sustainable Blue Economy, has announced the winners of three Neptune awards for $100,000 each, plus three $10,000 Collegiate Awards.

“Now in our 14th year, this award competition continues to attract deserving startups from around the globe. This year, two of our awards went to solutions that advance our understanding of the ocean and help to minimize our impact on these resources; new this year, thanks to a generous sponsor, we added an Ocean Enterprise award that was given to a solution that supports ocean observations and delivers improved intelligence and services.”

We are so fortunate to have the support of sponsors who support our mission of accelerating the adoption of innovative solutions for healthy oceans and the sustainable blue economy,” said Millicent Pitts, Executive Director of Ocean Exchange, which is now a featured program of the Marine Technology Society.

The winners were selected from an international list of 15 finalists at the Ocean Exchange event held October 26–28 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the event, 120 voting delegates from around the world registered and attended to vote for the winning solutions.

The 2025 award recipients are:

Ocean Enterprise Neptune Award: NeuralX, represented by Masake Nakada, Founder and CEO. NeuralX has AI-enabled insights to measure biomass, count fish, and monitor fish behavior for improved aquaculture productivity.
Neptune Award: Cecilia, represented by Kathryn Carpenter, Founder and CEO. Cecilia upcycles plastic waste into high-performance carbon materials and hydrogen.
Neptune Award: Orpheus Ocean, represented by Jake Russell, CEO and Co-Founder.

They have developed an autonomous underwater vehicle to unlock scalable seafloor access. In addition, the event marked the 10th anniversary of the Ocean Exchange Collegiate awards. Eight finalists competed for the Guy Harvey Foundation Collegiate Award for $10,000 and two Ocean Exchange Collegiate Awards for $10,000.

The 2025 recipient of the Guy Harvey Collegiate Award is Iluminar el Mar, Callie Veelenturf, COO. The two Ocean Exchange Collegiate Awards went to Ignition Packaging, Abdu Bejjaj, CEO, and OctaPulse, Paul Grech, Co-Founder and CEO.