Our Renewable Energies market group member bound4blue has closed a US$44 million (approx. €40.5 million) funding round backed by leading shipowners, climate-focused investors and government capital.

The round was led by OCTAVE Capital, an investment platform affiliated with with major shipowner IMC, together with Katapult Ocean. New investors include Motion Ventures, the Odfjell family office and the ReOcean Fund – led by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and Monaco Asset Management. Existing investors Shift4Good, GTT Strategic Ventures, KAI Capital and CDTI (Innvierte SICC) reinforced their commitment.

Operational data continues to confirm the scale of impact bound4blue’s systems have delivered to date. The company has already installed its technology on seven vessels, with twelve more in the orderbook – representing more than fifty suction sails in total across fleets operated by Maersk Tankers, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Odfjell, Klaveness Combination Carriers and BW Epic Kosan. 

“This round signals a new phase for bound4blue. Earlier stages focused on proving the technology and validating its impact; now this new capital reinforces the long-term backing we already have from investors who understand shipping and share our industrial vision and the role this technology will play across the fleet,” said José Miguel Bermúdez, CEO & Co-Founder of bound4blue.

“This funding enables us to expand capacity, accelerate our growth roadmap and advance new developments that will elevate both the technology and our services to the next level. It confirms that bound4blue is built on solid foundations and positioned for sustained global deployment,” he added.

Suction sails deliver real savings at scale

The investment reflects a growing industry consensus: wind propulsion systems are emerging as one of the most immediate and scalable decarbonisation levers for the world fleet, delivering both environmental and commercial benefits.

By generating additional thrust from wind power, the company’s eSAIL® suction sails reduce engine loads and fuel consumption, delivering double-digit operating cost reductions and improved performance under frameworks such as CII, EEXI/EEDI, FuelEU Maritime and the EU ETS. Independently verified results show the technology’s reliability in service:

• On Ville de Bordeaux, third-party assessments reported daily fuel savings of 1.7 tonnes, with peaks of 5.4 tonnes.

• On Odfjell’s Bow Olympus, the sails delivered average fuel savings of 15–20%, with voyage-leg peaks of up to 40% during its first transatlantic crossing.

By 2027, bound4blue is expected to deliver annual CO₂ savings of more than 400,000 tons, with over 570,000 tons avoided between 2024 and 2027. This impact corresponds to removing around 87,000 passenger cars from the road each year, planting more than 18 million trees, or avoiding over 250,000 transatlantic flights.

To meet rising demand, the company is establishing parallel production lines in Spain and China, improving throughput, strengthening supply-chain resilience and supporting faster installation schedules across both retrofit and newbuild projects.

The maritime industry is entering what many describe as the “retrofit decade”, with tens of thousands of vessels requiring efficiency upgrades before 2030. Unlike alternative fuels – which face long development timelines, infrastructure gaps and compatibility constraints – suction sails can be deployed today, on existing ships, operated by existing crews. Increasingly, they are also being incorporated into newbuild designs, offering shipyards and owners a straightforward way to reduce lifetime carbon exposure from day one.

With strong investor backing and expanding industrial capacity, bound4blue is positioned to support both the accelerating retrofit wave and the next generation of wind-assisted newbuilds.

About the EIC Scaling Club

The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.

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