$1 enables the planting of 7 seagrass seeds or 3 seagrass shoots. This is based on the productivity of their robotic planting systems. For example, one system can plant 1,333 seeds per hour. Mechanization significantly reduces costs compared to manual restoration methods as it is 15 times faster!

The reefgen team is composed of marine biologists, ocean engineers, and robotics experts. Founder Tom Chi has a strong track record, including establishing one of the largest biodiversity investment funds globally through At One Ventures and developing aerial drones to plant trees. Chris Oakes, CEO of Reefgen, combines over two decades of experience in corporate leadership, startups, and venture capital with a deep background in marine biology, bringing a unique blend of scientific expertise and business acumen to advance sustainable ocean technologies. Reefgen has achieved several milestones, such as pioneering the first robotic systems for planting seagrass, corals, and seagrass shoots, demonstrating their capacity to drive innovative and impactful restoration initiatives. Their full team can be seen here.

Vision:

A thriving planet with restored coastal ecosystems resilient to climate change.

Mission:

To accelerate marine habitat restoration globally through scalable, cost-effective, semi-autonomous underwater tractors.

Values:

Innovation, Collaboration, Sustainability, Integrity, and Community Empowerment.

They develop advanced underwater robotics that plant seagrass efficiently, making ocean restoration much faster, more affordable, and scalable than traditional manual methods. Designed to minimize disturbance to the seabed, their technology increases restoration success rates while reducing risks to human divers. The robots are adaptable to different marine environments and simple enough for local teams to operate anywhere in the world, enabling large-scale restoration efforts that are safer, more consistent, and easier to sustain over time. It’s like giving nature a high-tech helping hand!

ReefGen’s systems are designed for global applicability and ease of use, ensuring that training requirements are minimal and not a barrier to scalability. Their technology is already being implemented with partners in locations such as Indonesia, the UK, and across the USA. Their mechanized approach can be adapted to different environmental conditions and restoration needs. Their current deployments can be seen here.

Right now, they rely on external funding but they are actively developing long-term strategies to achieve financial sustainability. One promising avenue they are exploring is the emerging market for blue carbon credits—an approach that monetizes the carbon sequestration benefits of restored marine ecosystems. This could provide a revenue stream to support ongoing operations. In addition, they are building partnerships with large-scale environmental programs to ensure consistent funding and scalability over time.

However, it's important to note that the ocean restoration sector remains significantly underfunded, and generating sustainable revenue is a known challenge in this space. That said, recent regulatory developments, particularly in Europe—where new policies now require 20 % of the sea areas to be restored—are creating increased demand for solutions like Reefgen’s. By automating key parts of the restoration process, their solution can help maximize the impact of existing funding, allowing organizations to restore larger areas of seagrass habitat with the same or even reduced budgets.

While they are working toward making their model financially self-sustaining, they do not yet have a fully defined, step-by-step plan for generating revenue through blue carbon credits or other scalable funding mechanisms. At this stage, it’s unclear whether there is a realistic pathway where a single deployed robot could generate significant ongoing revenue through ecosystem services, carbon credits, or other means. Without a clear financial model in place, Reefgen’s long-term self-sufficiency and ability to scale without ongoing external funding remain uncertain.

Reefgen employs robust measures to mitigate operational risks, such as robotic malfunctions or the accidental introduction of invasive species, through close collaboration with local partners. While their robotic planting methods aim to increase efficiency and scalability compared to traditional human-led restoration—reducing labor costs and the physical limitations of divers—they face many of the same existential threats that challenge all seagrass restoration efforts. Climate change-driven ocean warming, acidification, pollution, and illegal fishing activities continue to pose significant risks to the long-term survival of both existing and newly planted seagrass meadows. Though technology can address some logistical hurdles, these larger environmental pressures remain as critical factors in the success of the restoration.

ReefGen employs a third-party controller to manage their finances and provides regular financial reports to their board members and shareholders. As a corporation, they maintain records of project costs and expenditures, though these are primarily shared with direct stakeholders rather than being publicly available. They track their spending across different project phases, from R&D to deployment, and maintain detailed cost models for their restoration work. While they have structured financial management, they do not explicitly offer public access to their financial records or detail their specific financial practices, which is standard practice for corporate entities.

ReefGen keeps track of everything they’re doing and shares updates in different ways, like project reports, their website, and social media. While they’re pretty open about their work, due to the nature of patents on the technology, some of their designs must remain private at this time. They’re doing a good job with transparency, but there’s still room to share even more! 

Reefgen is providing regular monthly updates throughout the robot's build process. Once the robot is completed, DDC will continue tracking its 'tour of duty' by engaging with local partners involved in seagrass restoration efforts.

Founded in Q4 2018, Reefgen has operated for six years, with field operations commencing two years ago. The organization has completed nine deployments this year.

Reefgen is making history with the world’s first underwater planting robots! They have planted tens of thousands of seagrass seeds across multiple regions using their robotic technology, including Santa Catalina Island, California; Morehead City, North Carolina; and Milford Haven Waterway, Wales, where they achieved a 300 percent increase in planting efficiency. In Longbranch, Washington, they supported efforts to restore 10,000 acres of kelp and eelgrass in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Although they have made significant progress, long-term studies of the seagrass survival rates have not yet been completed.

With their first successful restoration project completed in 2022, they are still in the early stages of gathering long-term data on outcomes. While their pilot projects did not yield comprehensive post-planting data—an acknowledged limitation—anecdotal reports from divers involved in the work confirm that seagrass is currently growing at the restoration sites. More broadly, seagrass planting as a restoration technique has been practiced for several decades, with well-documented successes in regions such as Virginia’s coastal bays, where large-scale projects have demonstrated that seagrass meadows can be effectively reestablished and sustained over time. These precedents provide encouraging context for the long-term potential of their efforts, even as they continue to build their own data set.

They articulate a clear commitment to environmental sustainability, technological innovation, and collaboration with local communities. Their team's expertise and the founder's background in biodiversity investment further reinforce their commitment.

Reefgen's "big goal" of restoring 10,000 hectares of seagrass annually by 2030 is ambitious, measurable, and aligns with DDC's focus on impactful solutions. Restoring 10,000 hectares of seagrass annually would make Reefgen’s effort the largest of its kind—nearly tripling the scale of the world’s biggest existing project  at 3,600 hectares. At this scale, their work could significantly boost marine biodiversity, support coastal fisheries, and help combat climate change by restoring vital seagrass meadows that capture carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests.

They estimate that scaling to 10,000 hectares per year would require $70 million—significantly lower than the current cost of $500 million for similar seagrass restoration efforts. They are also actively working to reduce costs further, meaning 

this estimate could decrease over time.

Reefgen offers two metrics: seed planting (7 seeds/$1) and shoots planted (3 shoots/$1). This calculation is based on the estimated cost of building an underwater planting robot, $30,000, and deploying it for 20 days of seagrass planting. However, this $30,000 covers only the construction of the robot and shipment of it to the local restoration groups for deployment. The cost of the seagrass seeds and shoots is covered through their partnership with the planting partners.

Reefgen tracks key impact metrics such as survival rates, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and water quality through their deployment partners. However, the most directly quantifiable outcome is the 7 seagrass seeds planted per dollar. Additional metrics collected through external partners, while valuable, may have limitations in oversight and accessibility.

Reefgen works with partner organizations to track and measure the success of their seagrass planting, rather than doing it all themselves. This makes sense since their main focus is building and deploying the planting robots with existing seagrass restoration efforts. However, relying on partners means they don’t always have full control over how the data is collected, which could make it harder to track long-term progress and learn from the results.

Reefgen understands that the disappearance of ocean habitats is driven by interconnected challenges, but they believe seagrass restoration addresses one of the root causes. Seagrass meadows are foundational to healthy marine ecosystems—by restoring them, Reefgen isn’t just bringing back a lost habitat; they’re tackling a key leverage point in ocean health. Seagrass plays a critical role in cleaning water, stabilizing coastlines, providing nursery grounds for marine life, and capturing significant amounts of carbon. These cascading benefits show how restoring seagrass can reverse multiple symptoms of ecosystem decline, making it a powerful solution at the root of many ocean challenges.

Reefgen is actively exploring self-sustaining models. One promising opportunity lies in the rapidly growing blue carbon credit market, which is projected to reach $50 billion by 2030 Reefgen’s pursuit of partnerships with governments and coastal stakeholders positions them to potentially generate revenue through verified carbon sequestration projects. To strengthen their application, they could provide a detailed roadmap outlining how they plan to achieve financial sustainability, including specific timelines, key milestones, and how blue carbon credits and other revenue streams will contribute to their model. They could strengthen their application by outlining a concrete roadmap for achieving financial sustainability, including timelines and key milestones.

Reefgen’s approach does not prevent other solutions from emerging or being deployed in the same marine environments. Their reforestation activities are designed to complement broader ecosystem restoration efforts, leaving room for potentially better or additional interventions in the future. By focusing on scalable, localized restoration, they contribute to habitat recovery without creating barriers for other technologies or approaches that might enhance or surpass their methods.

They emphasize capacity building and workforce training for local communities, with a core philosophy of developing tools that any community can use independently. Rather than running projects themselves, they focus on equipping local leaders with the knowledge and resources to implement and manage restoration efforts in ways that best fit their context. Because of this decentralized approach, it’s ultimately up to local project leaders to decide how to engage their communities and ensure equitable benefit-sharing. That said, they could strengthen this area by providing examples of how communities have used these tools to create local benefits—such as skill development, protecting their own coastlines, or generating income through restored seagrass areas used for fishing or eco-tourism.

There are no known or conceived of direct threats that our vetting team was able to identify that could create harm on Indigenous communities.

In addition, Reefgen is working with Northwest Indian College on a pilot project! This collaboration demonstrates Reefgen’s commitment to including and respecting Indigenous knowledge and leadership, blending cultural stewardship with ecological restoration. By supporting the community in making key decisions, the partnership fosters self-reliance and long-term sustainability—though, as with any locally driven initiative, it carries both risks and rewards.

Reefgen is addressing the rapid loss of seagrass meadows, which are disappearing at a rate far beyond what traditional human-planting methods can restore. Recognizing this challenge, they’re developing scalable restoration techniques designed to shift the paradigm on seagrass recovery. Seagrass plays a critical role in the planet’s life support system—often called the “rainforests of the ocean” due to their capacity for carbon sequestration, oxygen production, and biodiversity support. By restoring these ecosystems at scale, Reefgen’s work contributes to stabilizing fisheries, supporting marine biodiversity, and ensuring long-term planetary health for future generations

Reefgen understands that using new technology in the ocean comes with some risks—such as robots not working as expected or the potential for pollution from hardware materials. Even well-designed underwater robotics can introduce pollutants, whether through degrading lubricants, leaching materials from protective coatings, or accidental debris if parts break off. However, Reefgen has plans in place to address technical issues promptly and ensures that people are closely monitoring operations.

Seagrass restoration itself is a well-established and proven method for revitalizing marine ecosystems, but traditional human-led planting can introduce unintended negative consequences. These include damage to the seafloor from divers disturbing the sediment, health risks to divers, and fatigue-related errors that can reduce planting success. Reefgen’s robotic planting technology helps reduce many of these risks by minimizing physical disturbance, improving precision, and enhancing consistency.

Reefgen emphasizes the overwhelmingly positive benefits of seagrass restoration, which effectively highlights the value of their solution. However, there are potential challenges to consider, including the possibility of job displacement for seagrass divers due to automation and potential ecological impacts of robotic planting systems on marine life. These factors are important to acknowledge when evaluating the broader impact of their work.

Reefgen has a BIG, bold goal: to restore 10,000 hectares of seagrass every year by 2030! That’s like bringing back underwater forests the size of 50,000 soccer fields! But it’s not just about size—restoring that much seagrass could capture up to 700,000 tons of CO2 every year, helping to slow climate change. By restoring these underwater ecosystems, Reefgen is helping to boost biodiversity, protect coastlines, and bring balance back to the ocean—benefits that ripple out to the entire planet.

Restoring large-scale seagrass meadows is no small feat. Traditional restoration methods typically involve divers planting individual seeds or seedlings by hand, which is slow, expensive, and hard to scale—especially when you’re talking about areas that can stretch for thousands of hectares. Add to that the fact that poor water quality, often caused by coastal pollution and sediment runoff, can make conditions tough for both divers and newly planted seagrass. These factors drive up the cost of restoration efforts, not just in terms of labor, but also the long-term monitoring needed to track success and adapt strategies over time. All of this makes it really challenging to sustain large projects without major funding and logistical support.

Reefgen is changing the game in ocean restoration! These robots address critical bottlenecks in marine ecosystem restoration by dramatically increasing the speed, scale, and cost-efficiency of planting efforts. Reefgen’s current goal is to reduce the cost of each robot to $10,000 per unit, while increasing planting rates by 15 times compared to manual human efforts.  By integrating underwater cameras, sound-based navigation, and precision planting mechanisms, Reefgen’s robots can operate autonomously at depths and durations beyond human capacity, enabling scalable, high-precision restoration that strengthens long-term ecosystem resilience.

The restoration of seagrass meadows is an urgent environmental challenge, as these ecosystems play a crucial role in capturing carbon, supporting biodiversity, and protecting coastlines. Since 1990, seagrass loss has been accelerating at a rate of 7% per year —so rapidly that human-led replanting efforts alone cannot keep up, making swift restoration efforts essential to combat climate change and prevent further biodiversity loss. If this trend continues, we risk the collapse of vital fisheries, the release of vast stores of carbon back into the atmosphere (contributing to climate change), and the degradation of coastal communities that depend on healthy seagrass meadows for food security and protection. Reefgen’s work directly supports major global initiatives, such as the EU Law for Nature and the global 30x30 conservation target, highlighting the urgency of their mission.