TRaCE and Investible have co-invested in CounterCurrent’s $1.2M pre-seed round, a UNSW spinout using AI-powered ocean forecasting to optimise shipping routes and cut fuel consumption by up to 15%. The pre-seed funding, provided through TRaCE’s Early Stage Seed Fund, will support product development, sensor technology and cloud infrastructure for large-scale pilot deployments, while enabling CounterCurrent to build out its commercial team to drive adoption across the global shipping industry.
Every day, more than 112,000 cargo vessels cross the world’s oceans collectively accounting for around 2.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Improving how ships move through the ocean is one of the most immediate and scalable opportunities to reduce emissions across the shipping sector.
A Google Maps for the sea
CounterCurrent is building a solution to address that gap: the world’s first generative AI ocean forecasting system for ships. While vessels typically follow great-circle routes between ports, these paths often do not account for powerful and constantly changing ocean currents. By incorporating real-time data on ocean eddies and currents, CounterCurrent’s technology enables vessels to find not just the shortest route through our seas, but the most energy-efficient one. The results of early “digital twin” tests on over 100 vessels have been promising, showing up to 15% fuel savings.
Founded by Associate Professor Shane Keating, an oceanographer and applied mathematician at UNSW Sydney, CounterCurrent draws on more than 15 years of research into ocean currents, forecasting, satellite remote sensing and data science.
Taking the technology to market
CounterCurrent has progressed through TRaCE’s full commercialisation ecosystem at each critical stage of development. Keating initially joined the TRaCE Enterprise Academic Program, gaining early-stage funding and mentorship to shape the venture’s commercial foundation. The startup then advanced through the UNSW Founders Climate 10x Accelerator, which sharpened its value proposition and validated market demand.
TRaCE later deepened its support through its Lab to Market Fund, backing a major R&D project to optimise the system, verify fuel-saving performance and advance the technology from TRL 4 to TRL 6/7. That progression is demonstrating that the technology is commercially ready and is significantly de-risking the opportunity for external investors.
Bridging the startup ‘valley of death’
With growing confidence in the technology and its market potential, TRaCE is now supporting the next stage of CounterCurrent’s journey by co-investing in the company alongside venture capital firm Investible through the TRaCE Early-Stage Seed Fund.
“The early-stage ‘valley of death’ is where many climate deep‑tech innovations stall: not because the technology isn’t promising, but because it’s incredibly hard to secure capital before commercial traction is proven,” said Gabriella Nunes, Research & Commercialisation Director at TRaCE. “Our Early‑Stage Seed Fund is designed to meet founders at this critical moment, helping them cross that gap and build the confidence needed for the next wave of investors.”
“TRaCE’s support has been instrumental in supporting us to bring cutting-edge AI forecasting capability from research to reality,” said Associate Professor Shane Keating, CEO and founder of CounterCurrent.
“This investment allows us to expand adoption with commercial partners and accelerate our mission to cut emissions at scale across global shipping.”
For more information about the fund, visit https://trace.org.au/early-stage-seed-fund/.