SMTP’s “venture philanthropy” model was developed to fill a gap in support available for the early development of ocean technologies, which typically require something beyond traditional grants in order to achieve full potential and availability. Since its founding in 2015, SMTP has contributed funding to the development of more than 60 promising technologies that solve complex ocean health issues and, in most cases, have strong commercialization potential. This grant cycle’s recipients and projects include the following:
Virgil Group LLC for the development of SeafoodCheck, an automated software solution to assessing seafood legality
Subsea Data Systems is working with the University of Hawaii and the ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC Joint Task Force for SMART Subsea Cable to support development of SMART Cables, a global climate ocean monitoring system
Santa Monica Bay Foundation and Marauder Robotics for continued support of automatic urchin removal and restoring balance to kelp forests
Induced Polarization Associates (of parent company Williamson and Associates) to support the development of a towable contaminate sensing system
Anna Michel’s lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for further development of a portable ocean gas sensor
Ocean Research and Conservation Association for multiple efforts aimed at tracking and addressing estuary pollution issues
Ocean Visions to support the exploration of ocean based carbon dioxide removal
Plant a Million Corals Foundation to train groups internationally in coral reef restoration methods, and to provide toolkits for such work
Bishop Museum and Stone Aerospace for continued support of Sunfish, a “self-driving” real-time mapping automatic underwater vehicle (AUV)
Schmidt Marine Technology Partners is part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Network that includes The Schmidt Family Foundation, Schmidt Futures, 11th Hour Project, Schmidt Ocean Institute, 11th Hour Racing and Remain Nantucket.