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PierSight, an ocean surveillance startup, has bagged $6 million in a seed funding round co-led by Alpha Wave Ventures and Elevation Capital, with participation from existing investor Techstars.

The fresh capital will be used for acquiring and testing essential hardware, designing and launching demo and operational satellites, and expanding the company’s team.

PierSight is building a constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Automatic Identification System (AIS) integrated satellite technology to provide persistent ocean monitoring. SAR is a remote sensing technology that uses radar to create high-resolution images, while AIS is a tracking system used for identifying and locating vessels at sea.

“What we liked about Piersight was the paradigm change that could be brought about to the

industry of surveillance as we know it today,” said Navroz D Udwadia, Co-founder of Alpha Wave Ventures.

“If successful, this endeavour can set a new industry standard and catalyse global efforts for sustainable marine resources usage, better oceanic logistics infra and overall align perfectly with a future where technology, sustainability and efficiencies converge for the well-being of our oceans and nations,” Udwadia added.

Co-founded by Gaurav Seth (Ex-ISRO) and Vinit Bansal (Ex-National Instruments), PierSight is creating a persistent and dynamic view of all human activity at sea through its technology, which it claims will provide ‘eyes and ears’ at sea, offering 30-minute interval monitoring capabilities.

“We foresee a robust platform for persistent maritime monitoring, which will be used by multiple organisations,” Mayank Khanduja, Partner at Elevation Capital, said.

PierSight plans to focus on the design and launch of a demo satellite on ISRO’s PSLV Orbital Experimental Module platform, along with the deployment of its first operational satellite. It also plans to expand its team by more than double in the coming year.

In September, PierSight raised $600,000 in a pre-seed round led by All In Capital, with participation from Techstars, along with entrepreneurs, and angel investors.

“In the three months since we invested in PierSight, the company’s pipeline of business both in the US and internationally has grown exponentially,” Matt Kozlov, Managing Director of Techstars Space Accelerator, noted.