A 27-year-old doctoral student from Xi'an Jiaotong University aims at fully autonomous underwater operations, secures orders from multiple central state-owned enterprises, and receives financing from Inno Angel and Miracle Plus | Exclusive Report by 36Kr

Author: Ou Xue

Editor: Yuan Silai

Yingke has learned that Shaanxi Weilan Deep - Sea Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Weilan Deep - Sea") recently completed a tens of millions of yuan angel - round financing. We have summarized the information of this round of financing and several highlights of the company:

Financing Amount and Investment Institutions

Financing Round: Angel Round

Investors: Inno Angel and MiraclePlus

Use of Funds: It will be mainly used for the product R & D of the "Super Diver" underwater embodied platform, to complete the world's first large - scale underwater autonomous operation demonstration project in sea areas and the construction of an underwater data collection center.

Basic Company Information

Headquarters Location: Xi'an, Shaanxi Province

Product Matrix: The underwater operation scenario in the 360 million square kilometers of the ocean is the most difficult operation scenario for humans to access and is also a scenario in urgent need of embodied intelligence. The company's core product is the "Super Diver" underwater embodied platform. Its main technical parameters such as diving depth, operation range, and operation time have already led the elite special forces of frogmen by several times. The underwater embodied platform consists of two major modules: an underwater autonomous recognition and disposal robot and an underwater in - situ power supply base station. The underwater autonomous recognition and disposal robot integrates a multi - physical - field composite detection system, an intelligent navigation system, and a high - precision dual - robotic - arm operation module, and has the full - process ability from target recognition and detection to autonomous operation. The underwater in - situ power supply base station achieves energy self - sufficiency by capturing deep - sea current energy, providing long - term, maintenance - free power and communication support for the entire system. The platform adopts a modular design and can be flexibly configured with underwater execution modules according to different task requirements.

Technical Advantages: The ultra - low - flow - velocity ocean current energy power generation technology independently developed by Weilan Deep - Sea can stably start power generation in a deep - sea environment with a flow velocity as low as 0.1 m/s, fundamentally solving the long - term energy supply problem of underwater unmanned equipment. In terms of autonomous operation, the company has built an embodied intelligent system with a closed - loop of "perception - decision - execution". Through multi - modal fusion detection of sound, light, and magnetism, it can achieve long - distance target recognition and precise positioning, and with the help of anti - disturbance control algorithms and high - degree - of - freedom robotic arms, it can complete underwater operations with millimeter - level accuracy in complex sea conditions.

Product Applications: The "Super Diver" platform is mainly applied in two major directions. In the military field, it can be used for underwater reconnaissance, underwater target disposal, and the security and counter - measures of underwater infrastructure. In the civilian field, the platform can perform tasks such as long - distance inspection and maintenance of submarine optical cables and pipelines, exploration of marine oil, gas, and mineral resources, marine scientific investigations and data collection, maintenance of underwater equipment of offshore wind power facilities, and underwater search and rescue. Currently, the company uses military needs as an initial breakthrough and at the same time expands to a broader civilian market.

Market Size

The ocean is a strategic resource repository with huge potential. The deep sea with a water depth of more than 2,000 meters accounts for 84% of the total ocean area. As the development of land resources approaches a bottleneck, marching into the deep sea has become a national strategy. The government report shows that in 2024, China's marine economy scale exceeded 10 trillion yuan, accounting for 7.8% of GDP, and the global ocean contains more than 150 trillion US dollars in minerals. However, traditional underwater operations are limited by the operation range of frogmen and the dependence of cable - connected underwater robots on mother ships, making it difficult to meet the needs of large - scale deep - sea development.

Weilan Deep - Sea is targeting this blue - ocean market. Zhang Dayu, the founder of the company, said that the current global underwater robot market is about 50 billion yuan. The main factor limiting its market scale is the "human - in - the - loop" operation mode of underwater robots, which requires a thousand - ton - class mother ship for real - time remote control, greatly limiting the use scenarios of underwater robots. The company realizes "human - out - of - the - loop" full - autonomous underwater operation through the "Super Diver" embodied platform. The autonomous detection, recognition, and decision - making module weighing less than 1 kg can replace the real - time remote control of a thousand - ton - class mother ship in the deep sea, significantly reducing the cost and difficulty of underwater operations and leading the future trillion - level underwater autonomous operation market.

Company Performance

The R & D team of Weilan Deep - Sea has presided over national scientific research projects worth a total of 80 million yuan. They have completed the development of the third - generation "Super Diver" platform and the application acceptance by the general unit. Currently, the strategic focus is on the world's first large - scale underwater autonomous operation demonstration project in sea areas, paving the way for the subsequent large - scale unmanned underwater operation model. Zhang Dayu, the founder, revealed that the company expects to complete the first batch of benchmark cases in 2026 and start the mass - delivery phase of complete machines in early 2027.

Team Background

The core team of Weilan Deep - Sea is from Xi'an Jiaotong University. Zhang Dayu, the founder of the company, was born in 1998. As an assistant professor and doctor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, he was engaged in the R & D of deep - sea equipment during his student years. He presided over a doctoral project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, published more than ten SCI Zone 1 papers as the first author, and led the team to win the national gold award in the China International College Students' Innovation Competition twice.

Founder's Thoughts

Yingke: There are already many companies in the underwater robot field. What is the core difference of Weilan Deep - Sea?

Zhang Dayu: The core difference of Weilan Deep - Sea lies in focusing on forming the full - autonomous underwater operation ability of "human - out - of - the - loop". The current mainstream in the industry is still the remote - control operation mode that requires a mother ship, which is just a "substitute for divers" and still needs to be connected to a thousand - ton - class mother ship by cable for real - time remote control. Weilan Deep - Sea solves the long - term energy problem through the "Underwater Starlink" base, and solves the problems of autonomous recognition and disposal through multi - physical - field detection and intelligent control systems. The goal is to enable unmanned systems to work independently in the deep sea for a long time, greatly reducing the cost for humans to enter, explore, and develop the deep sea.

Yingke: As a startup company, does it face pressure when entering the deep - sea equipment market dominated by large state - owned enterprises?

Zhang Dayu: I think this is actually the best opportunity. In the era background of "small core, large cooperation", technology - based startup companies like ours can release the most valuable innovation vitality, participate in the country's important development strategies with disruptive technologies, and form in - depth cooperation with the "national team" to develop the huge blue - ocean market. In fact, this is what we are doing. With its disruptive technical path and systematic innovation ability, Weilan Deep - Sea can solve the pain points that traditional routes cannot meet. Currently, we have carried out in - depth cooperation with several central enterprises, forming a new application model.

Yingke: What are the development plans of Weilan Deep - Sea in the next few years?

Zhang Dayu: Our development has two parallel paths: one is to deepen commercial implementation, quickly complete the first batch of demonstration projects, and form the ability to sell complete underwater embodied platforms in batches; the other is to form the ability of generalized underwater operations. By building an underwater data collection center, accumulating massive operation data, and driving algorithm upgrades, we aim to finally achieve the evolution from "specific target recognition and disposal" to "multi - characteristic target recognition and disposal", and ultimately build an underwater embodied intelligent operation cluster covering the global sea areas.

Investors' Thoughts

Viewpoint of the Inno Angel Fund Investor: Similar to fields such as commercial space and low - altitude economy, the marine equipment industry is also undergoing a transformation from reverse imitation research to forward R & D. The deep sea breeds infinite opportunities and challenges. In this field, whether it is energy supply, underwater perception, communication, or operation ability, all require profound technical reserves and experience. We are delighted to see this energetic and profound - background team, as well as its exploration and accumulation of capabilities in various deep - sea directions. We are optimistic about the Weilan Deep - Sea team and look forward to its contribution to building a maritime power.