RanMarine Pitched Its EIC Accelerator Water Drones to Nasdaq Twice

RanMarine Technology builds the WasteShark, a battery-powered catamaran about 1.65 metres long that drives across harbours, canals and ponds with its mouth open, collecting floating plastic, algae and other debris in a basket between its hulls. In the European Innovation Council's Green Deal cut-off of 19 May 2020, the Rotterdam company was one of the winners of the EIC Accelerator pilot, with a grant only, according to the European Commission's list of selected companies, which names RanMarine as the only beneficiary of the project. CORDIS records an EU contribution of €1,588,895 towards a €2,269,850 project, running from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2022, to turn single drones into a self-running system: a swarm of WasteSharks that learns where rubbish gathers, and a docking station, the SharkPod, where they unload and recharge.

Six years later the drones are on sale, the company is active and its founder is still on board. The docking station and the swarm are not on the market. In between, RanMarine tried twice to list on Nasdaq. A first offering was priced in April 2024 and never closed; both registrations were withdrawn, in January 2025 and July 2026, with the company telling the US Securities and Exchange Commission each time that no securities had been sold, according to its 2025 and 2026 withdrawal letters.

Where RanMarine Stands Now

RanMarine Technology B.V. is registered as active at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, according to OpenKvK and OpenCorporates. Its balance sheet for 2024 was filed on 11 September 2025, according to North Data, which shows no insolvency filing; a search of faillissementsdossier.nl on 15 October 2026 returned no bankruptcy record. The contents of the 2024 balance sheet are behind North Data's paywall and could not be checked for this article.

On 20 May 2026 RanMarine announced that its chairman, Michael Foss, had become chief executive, with founder Richard Hardiman moving to President to lead product strategy, innovation and the European headquarters. The release names North America as Foss's commercial focus and mentions "future capital markets initiatives" without detail. Foss signed the July 2026 letter withdrawing the second IPO registration as chief executive. In September 2026 the company's ten-year review said "more than 120 WasteSharks" were at work in 37 territories. Its website sells three WasteShark models, the CyanoShark for algae blooms, the larger MegaShark and the RanMarine Connect data portal. No SharkPod is offered.

The Technology: A Robot Skimmer for Calm Water

Harbours and canals are traditionally cleaned by crews in boats with nets, or by diesel skimmer vessels. RanMarine's pitch is that a small electric drone can do the routine work more cheaply. Its 2025 prospectus describes the WasteShark as 165 cm long and 118 cm wide, with a 180-litre basket and a speed of 3 km/h, steered by remote control or driven autonomously, and able to carry more than 15 water-quality sensors whose readings are sent to the Connect portal, according to the company's Form F-1/A of March 2025. The company claims the cost per litre of plastic removed is "up to 80% cheaper" than two people in a boat; that comparison is its own and has not been independently tested.

Published capacity figures differ widely, which partly reflects different models and years. The 2018 CORDIS summary of RanMarine's SME Instrument Phase 1 project gave a carrying capacity of 550 litres; the 2025 prospectus gives 180 litres; Trellis, in an article first published in 2021, cited about half a ton of rubbish per shift, and the company's 2026 review says "up to 500 kg of waste a day".

The 2020 EIC project was about the next step. The CORDIS objective describes a "holistically networked swarm" that would learn where debris gathers, with efficiency gains of "50% for a small swarm and 120% for the swarm of 10 drones", and a SharkPod station where the drones would deliver their "catch" automatically, so that a port could be cleaned around the clock without an operator.

What the EIC Grant Promised, and What the Record Shows

The only report published on CORDIS is labelled as covering October 2021 to September 2022, but describes work in progress: the WasteShark was being made more robust, the SharkPod was being assembled in a test basin "by the 15th of October", the swarm and data work packages had "started conform planning", and two milestones were a month late because of supplier delays. No final summary of results is public. The results page lists two demonstrator deliverables, "Full deployment of multiple drones" and "Successful 8-hour deployment of the autonomous drone, including return", and an open research data deliverable.

The company's own accounts show the grant was paid out. RanMarine recognised €1,508,296 of EIC grant income between 2020 and 2022 and received the last €191,475 in March 2023, according to note 22 of its 2023 annual report on Form 20-F. The same filing's grants table lists "EIC Green Deal" at €1,542,035. Both figures are below the €1,588,895 on CORDIS; the filings do not explain the difference.

Measured against the CORDIS objective, the drone itself was delivered and the system around it was not. The autonomous WasteShark is on sale, and the data platform the project worked on is sold as RanMarine Connect. The SharkPod, the core of the automated system, was still described as "expected to launch in 2025" in the 20-F of July 2024 and as "expected to be launched in 2026" in the F-1/A of March 2025. No launch has been announced since, and the current product range on the company's website does not include it. No swarm product or published swarm efficiency result could be found.

1. More robust autonomous WasteSharkDeliveredAutonomous WasteShark+ Pro on sale; 102 units fulfilled by April 2024, per the 20-F.
2. 8-hour autonomous deployment with returnDeliveredListed as a CORDIS demonstrator; the deliverable itself is not public.
3. Water data platformDeliveredRanMarine Connect, a paid subscription required with every drone since early 2022.
4. SharkPod docking and unloading stationNot deliveredLaunch moved from 2025 to 2026 in filings; not on sale.
5. Learning swarm, 50% to 120% more efficientNot deliveredNo swarm product or result announced.
6. 12% to 32% less plastic reaching open water worldwideNot deliveredNo measurement published; about 120 drones are in use.

What RanMarine Has Achieved Since the Award

The grant arrived alongside private money. In May 2020, the month of the cut-off, the Luxembourg investor Boundary Holding took a "significant minority" stake for an undisclosed sum, with an option to buy more, Ventureburn reported. Boundary Holding held 20.1% before the planned 2025 offering, according to the F-1/A. RanMarine launched the MegaShark, a 4-metre vessel with an 880-litre capacity that can also carry an operator, in the third quarter of 2024, according to the same filing, and it is on the company's website today. An OilShark for oil spills was due in the second half of 2025 according to the F-1/A; it is still named in the website's company description but has no product page.

Sales stayed small. Revenue was €432,427 in 2022 and €649,880 in 2023, of which WasteSharks brought €507,776, and €389,036 in the first half of 2024, according to the F-1/A. The board had told investors in the 20-F that it expected 2024 sales of €4.0 to 8.0 million. Its largest distributor, the marina supplier Poralu Marine, which sold the drone as the "Pixie Drone", accounted for 57% of sales in 2022, 33% in 2023 and 4% in 2024; RanMarine ended that relationship in September 2024, citing among other reasons "very poor gross margin rates". Customers named on the website include PortsToronto, the municipality of Zaanstad and the Leeds Waterfront Group.

The Money: An IPO That Never Closed

RanMarine filed confidentially with the SEC in December 2022 and publicly in July 2023, according to its EDGAR filing history. On 22 April 2024 it filed a final prospectus for 1,572,727 units at $5.50 each, for listing under the tickers RAN and RANWW, and stated it would not complete the offering unless Nasdaq approved the listing. The deal did not close. In January 2025 RanMarine withdrew that registration, a withdrawal Renaissance Capital reported as a $9 million offering. A new filing in February 2025 proposed 1,850,000 American Depositary Shares at an assumed $4.00; that registration was withdrawn in July 2026 because the company "elected not to pursue the sale of securities". Why the April 2024 offering did not close is not stated in any filing found for this article.

While it waited for the listing, RanMarine financed itself with bridge loans, convertible notes and warrants. Changes in their fair value added €2,341,845 to the €5,327,508 net loss of 2023. On 31 December 2023 the company had €36,603 in cash, shareholders' equity of minus €8,652,552 and current liabilities €10,242,007 above its current assets; its auditor, Turner, Stone & Company, flagged "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern. The F-1/A of March 2025 added that most of its convertible notes, due on 2 January 2025, were "currently in default" while the company sought an extension. How those notes were settled after the July 2026 withdrawal is not public.

Why Europe Should Care

The EU's Zero Pollution Action Plan, adopted on 12 May 2021, aims to cut plastic litter at sea by 50% and microplastics released into the environment by 30% by 2030. Most marine litter starts on land and travels through rivers, canals and ports, which is the argument RanMarine made to the EU in 2018 and again in 2020. A drone that collects rubbish before it reaches the sea fits that policy, and the EIC funded it in a round reserved for Green Deal projects. But a fleet of about 120 small drones, sold mostly to municipalities according to Trellis, is a local cleaning tool, not yet a measurable contribution to the EU target.

The Verdict

RanMarine has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.