WaiV Robotics emerges from stealth with €6.4 million to develop autonomous UAV landing infrastructure

WaiV Robotics, a British maritime autonomous infrastructure developer, has raised €6.4 million ($7.5 million) in Seed funding as it emerges from stealth in order to introduce their fully automatic landing and takeoff platform designed to enable reliable VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) drone operations even in high sea states.

“For drones to become a reliable part of offshore operations, the missing piece isn’t the aircraft, it’s the infrastructure around it,” says Johnny Carni, Founder and CEO of WaiV Robotics. 

WaiV Robotics’ Seed round sits within a 2026 dataset showing continued funding for European drone, robotics, autonomy and unmanned-systems companies, spanning maritime operations, drone coordination software, autonomous inspection, aerial intelligence and defence-adjacent infrastructure.

The most directly comparable maritime example is Italy’s Mirai Robotics, which raised €3.6 million to build autonomous systems for maritime operations, while UK-based Mutable Tactics, Occam Industries and Stanhope AI indicate domestic investor activity around autonomy software and physical AI.

Across the relevant 2026 rounds, we saw around €201 million flowing through the sector, although this figure is heavily influenced by Quantum Systems’ €150 million financing package; excluding that outlier, disclosed funding still totals about €51 million.

“Our system was designed to remove traditional deployment constraints, allowing fleets to operate as mobile launch and recovery hubs that ensure reliable UAV operations. Without a dependable way to launch and recover at sea, large-scale deployment simply doesn’t work. Our goal is to remove that constraint and make drone operations viable from virtually any vessel,” adds Johnny.

The company says that while airborne drones have become increasingly capable on land, operating them at sea introduces a different set of challenges.

Offshore, the landing surface is in constant motion, shifting unpredictably with stochastic wave patterns that make a vessel deck far less stable than anything on land. Instead of a UAV approaching a fixed landing pad on shore, the drone must adapt to a surface that is constantly moving (six degrees of freedom) and may also be salt-covered and slippery upon contact.

Existing solutions have been limited to calm waters or lab conditions, leaving offshore operators hesitant to deploy UAVs, especially from smaller vessels.

WaiV’s approach centres on the infrastructure needed to support reliable UAV operations with a landing platform designed to operate independently of human input under difficult sea conditions.

Designed to support the full mission cycle from takeoff through recovery and landing, the system includes:

• Stabilised landing infrastructure: Through AI-controlled software and specialised algorithms, a gyro-stabilised platform effectively “takes over the sticks,” guiding the drone via its remote control and eliminating the need for an expert pilot during landing.

• Impact absorption and secure capture: The landing pad absorbs impact on contact, while a locking mechanism secures the UAV’s skids to prevent bounce, slide, or roll-off in high-sea conditions.

• Broad VTOL UAV compatibility: Designed to support any type of VTOL UAV, including multicopter, fixed-wing, and helicopter platforms, regardless of the manufacturer.

The platform supports UAVs up to 15 kg, with plans to accommodate smaller aircraft carriers as small as 3kg and larger carriers weighing 100-300 kg.

The system supports WaiV Robotics’ goal of making UAVs a viable option for offshore fleets that have traditionally faced deployment constraints.