I'm proud to announce the first cohort of seven ventures that will join the Propel accelerator program this month, each working on a problem that Western Australian industry has told us it needs solved.
Propel, delivered by Ocean Impact Organisation (OIO), is part of the Blue Economy Innovation Platform WA (BEIP WA), delivered through a partnership between OIO, For Blue and HOSX.
BEIP WA is an end-to-end pipeline. Gravity helps early teams work out where they stand and incubate. Propel accelerates ventures that are ready for market. Dock gives international companies a landing pad for importing and exporting into WA. Growth is a community and events program that connects innovators, industry and investors.
We started with the problem
We built this cohort backwards from validated industry challenges. Each venture was selected because it speaks directly to a problem that WA ports, asset owners, researchers and government have named. Those problems fall into four industries.
In ports, vehicle terminals can't see where imports and exports are or how long they've sat, which means lost storage revenue, congested yards and disputes with shipping lines. Electrification is also moving faster than grid upgrades, so sites must choose between overbuilding and underbuilding.
In offshore energy and decommissioning, ageing subsea pipelines are being removed with costly vessels and methods built for installation, and CODA counts 1,213 km due for decommissioning by 2030. Offshore wind, port expansion and blue carbon projects also need seabed baselines that largely don't exist yet.
In environmental monitoring and restoration, divers give detail over small areas and satellites give coverage without biological detail. Persistent underwater data is too expensive when it depends on crewed vessels, and seabed habitats are poorly mapped and rarely re-surveyed.
For government and emergency response, the need is low-cost, sustainable capability to respond to environmental and humanitarian emergencies, particularly for small and Pacific nations.
Meet Propel Cohort 1
Indrus uses AI and sensing to give ports and vehicle terminals a live picture of every vehicle and how long it has sat, which supports throughput at the Australian Marine Complex.
BeeCharge delivers flexible, off-grid charging so ports, fleets and vessels can electrify now, without waiting for full grid reinforcement.
Restore Subsea is developing technology to remove ageing subsea pipelines without the costly vessels and methods built for installation, and to give structures landed in WA a circular pathway.
Flying Fish Technologies pairs autonomy and sensing to close the gap between diver detail and satellite coverage. Applications include early detection of invasive species at ports and real-time seagrass monitoring during dredging.
Infin Robotics builds autonomous underwater vehicles that make persistent seabed data affordable and help fill mapping gaps in WA waters.
GAIA Marine turns towed visual sensing into repeatable seabed baselines for ports, offshore energy and blue carbon projects.
Obsidian Systems builds Chimera, a modular uncrewed surface vessel that changes payloads and roles without buying a new asset. It gives small and Pacific nations an affordable, persistent maritime presence for emergency response, resource protection and ocean monitoring.
What happens next
Over the coming months these seven teams will progress through the Propel program with the goal of connecting each venture directly with the WA organisations facing the challenge their technology is designed to solve.
If you run a port, manage offshore assets, or work in environmental monitoring, restoration or emergency response, and one of these challenges sounds familiar, get in touch and I'll make the introduction.
Many of the challenges and solutions represented in this cohort will also be explored at the Engineering Ocean Solutions 2026 event (7-11 December), where industry, government, researchers, investors and innovators will come together to collaborate on solutions that lead directly to trials, pilots and deployment.
BEIP WA is supported by the Western Australian Government through the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification (DEED), the City of Fremantle, the City of Cockburn, the City of Rockingham and Austrade.
