Europe’s first dual-use startupdeveloping autonomous vehicles and systems for complex maritime operations.
Puglia and Milan, Italy - 9 March 2026: The sea is one of the most criticalinfrastructures on the planet. Over 80% of global trade moves by sea, more than90% of Europe’s foreign trade depends on maritime routes, and around 95% ofinternational internet traffic flows through subsea cables. Today, the global blueeconomy is worth more than $2.5 trillion and, according to internationalestimates, is expected to exceed $4 trillion by 2030.
Despite its economic and geopoliticalcentrality, the maritime domain remains one of the most complex and leastdigitized environments in the world: high operational costs, limited continuousobservability, significant exposure to risk, and a strong reliance on humanoperators. This is compounded by an increasingly structural trend: a shortageof qualified professionals, with thousands of operational roles difficult tofill and a steadily rising average age among captains and operators. A fully human-centricmodel is struggling to sustain continuous, safe, and scalable operations.
It is within this context that MiraiRobotics was founded — a European AI robotics lab with the ambition to buildthe robotic infrastructure needed to make the sea more governable, safe, andobservable.
Mirai Robotics’ systems are designedto enable persistent surveillance, patrolling, monitoring, and control,reducing human exposure to risk and significantly lowering operational costscompared to traditional models. The company focuses on the deep integration ofautonomous vehicles, advanced sensing, artificial intelligence, and controlsystems, approaching autonomy first and foremost as an engineering andindustrial challenge — not merely a software one.
From a product perspective, MiraiRobotics has already developed two autonomous vehicles designed for differentoperational needs, targeting ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance andReconnaissance) and patrolling scenarios in both coastal and offshore environments.The vehicles integrate advanced perception systems, autonomous navigation,remote control, and safety features, and are designed to operate either asstandalone units or as part of distributed systems.
Alongside its proprietary platforms,Mirai Robotics also develops autonomy, navigation, and control solutions thatcan be integrated into third-party vehicles, enabling industrial andinstitutional operators to adopt autonomous technologies without having tofully redesign their existing fleets. This approach makes Mirai’s technologyapplicable across multiple civil and institutional use cases, following adual-use by design logic.
The decision to start in Italy isdeliberate. The country is historically a global leader in shipbuilding andmaritime engineering, with internationally recognized excellence in defense,yachting, offshore, and marine infrastructure. Mirai Robotics was born at theintersection of this industrial heritage and a new generation of technologiesbased on advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems.
Mirai Robotics positions itself as anAI robotics lab, not merely a vertical solution provider. Its goal is todevelop physical autonomy technologies capable of operating in extreme, mission-criticalenvironments, where reliability, safety, and control are non-negotiablerequirements.
The company was founded by LucianoBelviso (CEO), Luca Mascaro, and Davide Dattoli, board member. Luciano Belvisohas previously built and led highly complex industrial companies, includingBlackshape, a benchmark player in aircraft design and manufacturing, lateracquired by Angel Holding. Luca Mascaro is an entrepreneur and technologicaldesigner, founder of Sketchin, later acquired by the BIP Group, where he servedas Chief Innovation Officer, with extensive experience in building digitalproducts and technology platforms at international scal. Davide Dattoli is anentrepreneur, founder of Talent Garden, and an investor in the tech andeducation ecosystem, with a long track record in scaling innovative companiesacross Europe.
Around the founding team, MiraiRobotics has assembled a pan-European team with expertise in artificialintelligence, robotics, complex systems, and mission-criticaloperations. The team includes top professionals and collaboration with leadinguniversities and research centers.
The company is headquartered inPuglia, chosen as a strategic hub between the Mediterranean, industry, andresearch, with the ambition of building a European center of excellence formaritime autonomy.
Mirai Robotics has closed a $4.2million pre-seed equity round, one of the largest in Italy in the robotics anddeep-tech sector, led by top VC Primo Capital, Techshop and 40Jemz Ventures,with participation from leading Italian and international angel investors. Thecapital raised will be used to accelerate technology development, strengthenthe team, and launch new pilot projects with industrial and institutionalpartners.
“The sea is one of the last majorphysical infrastructures not yet governed by software,” says Luciano Belviso,CEO of Mirai Robotics. “Autonomy is the key to finally making the oceans safeand usable, unlocking enormous resources and addressing critical securitychallenges. But it must be implemented through systems capable of operatingcontinuously and safely in extreme environments. This is a technological andindustrial challenge that requires a true robotics-lab approach.”
“The maritime domain is at an inflection point. We'relooking at a huge economy that still relies on operational models designeddecades ago. The human capital gap alone—thousands of unfilled roles, agingworkforces, increasing operational risk—makes the status quo unsustainable.What Mirai Robotics is building isn't just automation; it's the fundamentalinfrastructure layer that will allow the blue economy to scale safely andefficiently. Italy's shipbuilding heritage combined with this caliber of roboticsand AI talent creates a genuinely unique opportunity” - Gianluca Dettori Partner at Primo Capital, lead investors inthe round.
With Mirai Robotics, Italy strengthensits historic role in the blue economy, projecting it into a new phase whererobotics and artificial intelligence become foundational infrastructure forsecurity, industry, and the economies of the future.
