RANMARINE TECHNOLOGY BV

Their core work

RanMarine Technology designs, manufactures, and deploys the WasteShark — an autonomous surface drone that collects plastic waste, debris, and harmful biomass (such as algae) from harbors, ports, and inland waterways. Their core product is a commercially deployable aquatic robot that operates continuously on water surfaces, removing solid and liquid pollutants without requiring crew or fuel-powered vessels. Beyond single-unit operation, they develop swarm intelligence systems that allow multiple WasteSharks to coordinate and cover large water areas autonomously. Based in Rotterdam — one of Europe's busiest port cities — they combine marine robotics hardware with environmental remediation missions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

RanMarine entered H2020 in 2018 with a lean SME Phase 1 feasibility study (€50,000) focused on the WasteShark concept — at that stage, the project carried no technical keywords, suggesting an early commercial validation exercise rather than deep R&D. By 2020, their SME Phase 2 award of nearly €1.6M tells a very different story: the project profile is rich with specific capabilities — autonomous drone systems, intelligent swarms, solid waste, liquid waste, and harmful biomass — indicating a transition from prototype validation to industrial-scale product development and deployment. The trajectory is that of a hardware startup that used EU SME Instrument funding as a growth ladder, moving from proof-of-concept to a commercially scalable autonomous cleaning platform in roughly two years.

RanMarine is on a clear commercialization path — having graduated from SME Phase 1 to Phase 2, their next logical step is international deployment, port authority contracts, and potential expansion into aquaculture or smart city water infrastructure.

How they like to work

RanMarine operates as a solo innovator: both H2020 projects were coordinated by the company alone, with zero consortium partners recorded. This is consistent with the SME Instrument funding scheme, which is specifically designed for single-company applications. Working with them means working directly with the product team — they are not experienced consortium builders, but they bring a focused, commercially-driven product that can serve as a ready-made technology asset within a larger environmental or smart-city project.

RanMarine has no recorded H2020 consortium partners and has not formally collaborated with organizations in other countries under these grants. Their network, to the extent it exists, is almost certainly commercial — port operators, harbor authorities, and environmental agencies — rather than academic or research-consortium based.

What sets them apart

RanMarine is one of the very few European SMEs that has built a commercially deployable autonomous surface drone specifically for water pollution removal — a niche that sits at the intersection of marine robotics, environmental services, and smart port infrastructure. Unlike research institutes that study marine litter, RanMarine makes and sells the machine that collects it, giving them a rare hardware-product identity in the EU innovation landscape. For any consortium needing a credible, field-tested water remediation technology rather than a concept study, WasteShark is a ready answer.

Highlights from their portfolio

• WasteShark (SME-2)
  At nearly €1.6M in EC funding, this Phase 2 award represents a full commercial scale-up of autonomous swarm drone technology for water surface cleaning — one of the largest single-company SME Instrument grants in this niche.
• WasteShark (SME-1)
  The 2018 Phase 1 feasibility grant marked the formal EU validation of the WasteShark concept and was the launchpad that led directly to the much larger Phase 2 investment two years later.