Turning the Ocean Into a Sensing Network featuring Graeme Rae

What if the ocean could run apps? Hyperkelp's Kelp OS is turning smart buoys into an open sensing network at sea. Welcome to The Connect Current, the flow of innovation in San Diego. We bring you the founders, investors, and leaders building the future across life science, tech, climate, defense, AI, and more. This is where San Diego's next chapter takes shape. Welcome to the Connect Current, the flow of innovation in San Diego. I'm your host, James Zanewicz, and this episode is being recorded at Kiln in Rancho Bernardo. It's some of the best coworking space around and one of the homes for the Connect team. Today, I'm joined by Graham Ray, PhD, founder and CEO of Hyperkelp, and one of Connect's 2026 Cool Companies. Hyperkelp builds the Kelp Smart Buoy, a marine platform designed to carry almost any sensor out to sea and deliver that data back in real time. Rather than positioning the company around a single sensor, they describe Hyperkelp as a platform company. If a customer wants to measure CO2 levels, water clarity, or even just listen for marine life, the buoy can carry that payload and get the data home. Graham's path into ocean technology runs deep. He holds a PhD in ocean engineering and AI from Florida Atlantic University, spent years teaching ocean engineering at the graduate level, and helped develop some of the first generation of autonomous underwater vehicles. He was also one one of the original founders of surfline.com, building the science behind the world's most widely used marine forecasting service before founding Hyperkelp. That platform approach is now opening doors well beyond the San Diego Bay. Hyperkelp has worked with the Port of San Diego's Blue Economy Incubator, earned a direct-to-phase-2 contract from the US Air Force, and joined NATO's Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic Program, connecting the company to partners across the alliance. This is a great Connect Current conversation because it sits at the intersection of ocean science, Mm-hmm. dual-use technology and platform thinking, and it's a strong example of why we're excited to recognize Hyperkelp as part of Connect's 2026 Cool Companies. Welcome to the show, Graham.

Great to be here.

All right, so let's dive in. So if a listener is meeting you and Hyperkelp for the first time, what is the Kelp SmartBoy? What problem does it solve? And why did you build it as a platform rather than a single-purpose sensor?

Okay. So yeah, the Kelp Smart Buoy is a hosted payload system. It's designed to carry basically anything you can plug in. And the problem that it solves is basically whatever problem a customer has. And that's actually been one of the hardest things to sell this product is because we're, it's like people don't buy a laptop because they want to buy a laptop, right? They buy a laptop because they want a spreadsheet program so they can run a business, or they want Photoshop so they can do art, or a word processing program so they can write a story. So there's even a level of separation between the problem and the product there. So it's been a tough sell, but once that light bulb goes off in our customers, they realize, oh, this is exactly what we can do, then that's how we got to where we are. Why did we build that is because I've spent, like you said, years in ocean engineering technology. And every single time we saw someone building a buoy or a UUV or an unmanned surface vehicle, they build it from the ground up. They build every single component. They build the sensors, they build the onboard intelligence, they build the power systems, they build the communication systems, everything from scratch. And we thought, why not take 3 quarters away, provide that framework, and then just let the customer come in and go, hey, I've got this clever little widget that does this. Now you can put it on a buoy and you don't have to become an engineer to get the data you want.

Well, and so say a new partner comes to you tomorrow with a completely new sensor. How quickly could Hyperkelp get that out and on the water?

We have done it in the field in like half an hour.

Wow.

Where we were doing an exercise with the Marine Corps. They were interested in detecting passing technology. They told us how to detect the technology. They had a sensor that they wanted to do. We plugged it in, we wrote about 20 lines of code, and the next thing you know, on the 5G—

So truly plug and play. Plug and play.

I hate, I hate that phrase.

I know you hate it, but like, it really, people understand that.

Yeah. Yeah. You plug in their sensor and next thing you're looking at a dashboard and a computer and it goes, yeah, the number of those things you're looking for has just changed from 1 to 4. Um, so yeah, it's, it's very, very easy to do that.

Well, diving back into a bit of your history, you've spent decades in ocean engineering. So you started when you were like 2, obviously, um, from developing those early autonomous underwater vehicles to co-founding Surfline. How did that path lead you to Hyperkelp and how do those, or what did those I guess is more important. Those earlier chapters teach you about what the ocean actually needs.

It all started back in the day, young student interested in the ocean. I studied shipbuilding in England. I moved to Florida. I studied ocean engineering, always around the water, always around boats, always around things that would break in the water. So my career went from teaching ocean engineering building the very first UUVs. And one of the things that happened, and this is where the sort of the weird accidental CEO, accidental entrepreneur thing happened. I was building maps of wave heights to figure out when we could launch submarines or mini subs off the beach in Florida. And the maps that we were producing that we put on the new thing then called the internet was really popular with my students to figure out when to go surfing. So this turned into a little business and I was teaching college and this was right around the dot-com craziness back in 2000. And I was like, man, I could make a go at this. I could do this. So I ended up being acquired by Surfline and Swell and I quit academia and I moved to California. They doubled my salary and told me to go surf every day. And it was like, this is basically an offer I couldn't refuse.

All right.

But a lot of people thought I was insane that I was giving up this academic career to go work for bunch of surfers. But the technology that we built at Surfline was some of the most insanely good software that I've ever seen. The guys who built the original Lola model were Bill O'Reilly from Scripps, was just a genius. And he and I managed to get that and put it in a way that surfers could understand. And we had Sean Collins, who was another genius as well, like self-taught. So between the 3 of us, we managed to make this incredible product that drove decades of leadership, market leadership in surf forecasting. But that then led to selling this data to other people. There was a little side thing at Surfline that I was running where we were selling data to oil and gas, to the government, to the military, to coastal engineers where they wanted to get a lot of sort of historical data about things. And that turned into a really quite a fun and productive consulting business. And I left Surfline to carry that on by myself. And as a consultant engineer in ocean engineering. It was very fun. I did all sorts of fun projects. I built other UUVs. I built navigation systems for underwater systems, selling a lot of data. It was a very stressful time. The work was fun, but I got picked up by another company, Swift Engineering, who said, we have this project to build these buoys. The guy who was running it quit. Can you just come in and help us finish it? And I was like, yeah, sounds perfect. Exactly what sort of thing I was doing. And as I was finishing this project up, we realized that there was a product there. This wasn't just write the final NOAA report and be done with it. We're like, there's something here that doesn't exist that people want. And that's that idea of the buoy where you can plug things in. So we started thinking, can we turn this into a business unit at Swift? Should we spin it out as its own business? Then Techstars found out about us. Lockheed Martin found out about us. And they said, if you can put a sensor on this thing that can listen for missiles, you've got a winner here.

Oh, wow.

And we were like, yeah, we can do that. No problem at all. Realizing quite how hard detecting missiles is going to be. But we did, we solved the problem very quickly and we got into Techstars. We got a contract with the Navy to do missile detection. And that was basically the first payload that we had on these things that was non-environmental. And that's what's funding a huge part of our business right now is getting that into the fleet. So yeah, so going from ship student in England to building missile detectors for the US Navy seems kind of a strange pathway, but the steps are all there. And it's been a fun ride, I'll tell you that.

Well, I find that everyone who is passionate about whether you call it blue tech, the water, the ocean, there's some sort of seminal moment that got them attracted to water. What was it?

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

This is getting personal. Right, right, right.

Digging into the personal here.

I'm trying to think of the clever moment while I was at college or something. Or was it just always— But you know what? The thing that came up The first thought of my mind was in high school, I was on the sailing team and we would go sailing every Sunday afternoon. We'd go out to this little lake and we'd sail these tiny little boats, toppers and mirrors and miracles, these little tiny wooden boats. And that was my absolute happy place. Just being on that boat was so much fun, what I wanted to do. So sailing was always going to be a part of my life.

Yeah.

In fact, my high school yearbook, my quote, where do you see yourself in 50 years' time? And I said, sailing the Pacific in a 2-masted schooner. And that's what I do.

That's amazing.

I have a friend, Bart, who has the most beautiful schooner down in San Diego Bay, and we go sailing on that regularly. So I achieved my high school yearbook dream.

Unlike most people. I mean, that's actually pretty good. All right, well, diving back into work now. So HyperBook helps work spans the Port of San Diego's Blue Economy Incubator, the US Air Force and Navy contracts, both which you mentioned, and NATO's DIANA program, among other things. What has it taken to move the same core technology from this local pilot to a partner that defense and government customers trust and actually seek you out to adopt?

Yeah, yeah. When we said that's what we were going to do, a lot of people said it'll never work, right? The lifecycle of dealing with the government, dealing with DOD is just so long for a startup. It'll never happen. It'll take you 18 months before someone will even talk to you. So we had Techstars, which was really helpful. We got to speak to people so high above our pay grade, like MDA and the Navy and ONR and places like that. So we could at least pitch this stuff, which at the time felt like we were just banging our heads against a brick wall. But looking back now, it was doing that trust building. People started to know who we were, our name and our product was being at least discussed in some circles. And then literally 18 months to the day, we met some people at Port Hueneme at the Fathomworks Coastal Trident event where they were like, this is exactly what we're looking for. And here's the guy who not only has the need, but he has the money, which is the other impossible thing to find when you're dealing with the DOD. And then what happened is we get that first contract, that first leap of faith for someone who's followed what we've done. Once that door opened. Literally months later, we get other calls. The Air Force were interested because someone said, okay, these guys know what they're doing. The other thing that we found that's been a massive trust builder is the experiments, government experiments. So I literally just got back last week from Silent Swarm. I was out there with the CSATS guys and we were doing another buoy that we have that has an intelligent radar built onto it. So it's a low-cost, almost disposable radar. But going to those experiments, showing your product to other people. They don't necessarily buy it, but it gets that name recognition. It gets them in and you get government validation, which is absolutely vital. So if anybody is thinking about doing something like this, a startup in defense, that would be my biggest thing. Get in those as early and as soon as you can. And it also teaches you how the DOD works, right? And the process, and you have to play their game.

And once you build that relationship, it tends to snowball on itself because like, oh, trusted partner. Can they do this now?

Can they do this now?

Yeah.

Once you get in one and then, yeah. So yeah, take advantage of those. The NATO DIANA program was one of the most intense things we've done as a company. So much travel. I have no idea how many air miles I put on in the last 6 months, but we were in Munich and Turin and Paris and London and Halifax in Canada and everywhere, just meeting other navies, other militaries. We've come to the conclusion Conclusion, it's actually very, very hard for us as a US company to break into those markets. And as a very— we're a fairly small company, we're only 8 people. We don't really have the resources to pursue those right now. But again, they come to us and we've got that seal of approval now again, that trust and validation because we were part of that program that I think that's going to pay off. I think the tail on that is a little bit longer, but I'm hoping sometime Next year, year after, it'll kick in. I will say as well that the Diana program, one of the best things about it was the other teams we were in with, the other companies. Our cohort had some just insane technology and seeing the potential collaboration, we're already talking about some joint projects with those guys. I think that's the big outcome from Diana is going to blossom in the next 6 months. So we're excited about that.

Looking forward to staying, staying tuned and seeing what happens. And hopefully when that does happen, you know, you'll leverage Trey Brackett, our Chief Brand Engagement Officer, to do a press release for you. Oh, absolutely.

I would love that. We've got a, we've got a list of press releases that we're sitting on right now.

Awesome. Well, I mean, we look at this, we look at what your technology is. It's not building really software. It's building technology that has to survive in the ocean. work across both military and civilian customers, but yet collect really reliable data the entire time and be able to collect, transmit all those things. So what has been the hardest about turning all those little pieces that have to come together, all of which are super easy on their own, into a scalable company?

Yeah, we do do software as well, right? The software is the special sauce that makes this thing very, very clever. We have this engine that it's the Kelp OS that can basically take data from all these different systems, blend it together, and there's a decision engine in there deciding whether to act on it or not. And it is bulletproof. It has to be really, really rugged and reliable. That's the thing, right? Stuff that goes in the ocean has to be— well, it can be one of two things. It can be 100% reliable or completely disposable. And we are in the middle ground of that. Our systems are disposable. The buzzword is attritable, right? They're meant to be thrown out of airplanes, bob around in the ocean for their duration, 90 days, collect their data, be the picket line, look for ships, look for drug runners, whatever it needs to do. And then because they are affordable, attritable intelligence systems, when they're done, they scuttle themselves, they sink, they're done, and you put in a new one. So rather than spend several hundred thousand dollars on some sort of exquisite platform system that is autonomous, but still controlled.

You have to go out and do maintenance. Yeah.

Yeah. Bring it back and they're big and they're useful.

Which is not easy in the middle of the ocean.

No, you can't. So ours is, we're like, okay, well, we're going to take that part of the problem away and just get rid of it. We've taken a very careful approach to making sure everything is as low cost as we can make them, but still be reliable, rugged, and solid. And it's a very fine balancing act trying to figure out, okay, What modem do we put? What SATCOM modem do we put on that we know we're going to throw away? You can't afford the best. We can't put a Silvis tactical radio on there. They're $20,000. That's going to completely blow our business model. But there are other solutions. There are cheaper solutions that you can use to make these things still work very reliably. But yeah, so putting tech in the ocean, the ocean is a harsh mistress. Is that the right phrase?

Yeah.

Yeah, that's the phrase, right? It is relentless. Anchoring systems are, you see why anchoring systems are as solid and as big and as heavy as they need to be. You've got to make that connection between, is it going to last forever? Is it going to last as long as it needs to last? How can we trade off those two?

You're balancing your kind of increased and heightened sensitivity, which often comes with being a little more delicate with the need to be really durable and resilient, which is incredible to hit that magic sweet spot. You've done it all.

Yeah, it's very, very hard to do. And also, you've also got to balance that different products and the different customers have different needs. Some of them, they don't care if you're bouncing around and it's rolling, rocking forward. Other than it absolutely has to be rock solid. If there's a camera on there, you can't have this thing bouncing around. So different customers, different needs. The other fun thing that everyone deals with in the ocean is buoyancy and ballast.

Oh yeah.

Right? Does it float? Right?

Because if it doesn't float, Not really good.

It's not gonna work.

Well, I mean, all that's just very cool, which is why Hyperkelp is part of Connect's 2026 Cool Companies. And so as you take on this next stage of the company, what does being connected to San Diego's innovation ecosystem, and are there any kinds of partners, customers, collaborators, investors, anything like that that would be really helpful for the company right now in this moment?

Yeah, so being in San Diego has been absolutely pivotal to what we do. The TMA BlueTech, for one, those guys have just been insanely helpful, just making connections, just keeping on top. They're that sort of, they're like an extra employee that's out just looking out for us all the time. The defense tech meetups, Tom Porkowski's gig is amazing where you just meet that. The IEEE Ocean Engineering groups, the Cheers Oceaneers, there's this community of people that help each other. I'm surprised that no one's been using this buzzword, but it's that idea of like the rising tide lifts all boats, right? So we all help each other. We've worked with companies here, you know, CSATS, obviously they went through Techstars with us. We're good friends with those guys. There are so many other companies that have just like, yeah, we can help. You know, you need a piece of gear? Yeah, we've got one. You can borrow it and just try it out and then hand it back. Or no, just keep it. It's fine. There's so much of that happens in this ecosystem. For us particularly, because we're distant from DC, and Alexandria, which is where a lot of this work happens and where it's funded. That makes it a little tricky, but it feels like now with the new PARAS thing that's being stood up, there feels like there's a big move to get some of this military focus, defense focus here in town rather than us having to rely on the East Coast all the time. As far as Connect, I think I said this before, is when I applied to Connect, I just thought, oh, this is just a fun little thing where I can just put a badge on my website, we're a cool company, not realizing It's amazing how deep this thing goes and how big of an honor it is to be part of this. The people that we've met here have been great as well. And it's another one of those, the fact that you guys recognized us is a huge feather in our cap. Look, it's not just us saying we're great. Other people think that we're great.

Well, and it's us assembling a team of investors and strategics who chose you.

Oh, yes.

We facilitate it, but it is the people who fund and partner with companies like yours. So it's even more than just us doing it. It's kind of incredible.

Yeah. So that's— yeah. So those are—

It's the horsepower.

Who can we meet? And this is probably my fault. We are so busy right now. I've spent 2 weeks a month for the last 6 months traveling with NATO. We're looking for strategic partners. We're looking for some of the neoprimes that we can work with. We have a product that can't work by itself. It needs delivery systems. It needs a mission. It's a product that can do so many different things.

Yeah.

But if we can find those people that can help us demonstrate. I'm not going to name names, but yeah, but there are a number of companies around here that would benefit from working with us. As far as investors go, we are largely bootstrapped, but we would definitely welcome—

But you'll always take money, right?

We'll always take money.

If somebody wants to roll up a truck of money, just come dump it.

But yeah, we're looking, we would love to find the right investment partner that can help us get to the next level. We know we can do this. With the trickle feed from the Navy right now, we've got this mapped out for the next 3 years. We're on track for our program of record. We would love to get there faster. We would love to be able to scale faster, and we can't do that without some sort of infusion of cash. So yeah, reach out. I said, I'm sorry I've been difficult to find recently, but—

Because you're working hard and getting it done.

We're getting it done. Yeah. We just landed another contract actually in 2 hours. I should be signing the paperwork for that. So That's gonna fund us for another year or two.

Perfect.

So it's all good.

Well, so knowing that, always there's what drives people. So we always close on this classic Connect Current note. So Graham, what drives your innovative flow?

Oh my gosh, there are a number of things. There's the 3:30 in the morning, you wake up and you can't get back to sleep and you're just like, okay, what have I gotta do tomorrow? And you just swirl around in your brain.

I'm gonna start texting you when I wake up 'cause that's, I always wake up at 3:30 in the morning too.

Like 3:25, I look over, oh God, here we go again. And then I solve the next problem. Now, there's a couple of things I think from a company standpoint, the innovative flow is the people that I work with. I've got this most amazing team of engineers, of people that handle the business side of things, and everyone's got such great ideas and they're so solution-oriented that all I need to do is go, there's the goal, this is where we're aiming, how are we going to get there? And ideas start flowing. The products start evolving, and that keeps me free. All I need to think about is sort of the general solution, and everybody else can come in and come in with these super clever ideas, and I'm never going to get in someone's way. If you've got a great idea, let's hear it. Let's talk about it. And then the other thing I do every morning, I do the London Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword, which is—

Nice.

Which is one of the hardest crosswords in the world, and I am never satisfied until I can solve that. And solving that, everything else in the bank—

You can solve everything else.

Everything else is easy after that one. So yeah, that's my little morning routine.

And I'll let the London Telegraph know, you know, we are hoping for sponsorship at Current. So if they want to sponsor us, we can talk about the crossword puzzle every week.

Okay.

But anyway, Graham, I want to thank you because this was such a great conversation. And I think a good reminder that some of the most important innovation happens Things we don't think about together necessarily, like the ocean defense and data, all collide and come together. And Hyperkelp's work in this area shows what's possible when a platform mindset meets decades of ocean engineering expertise. Again, we are so excited to have Hyperkelp as one of our Connect 2026 Cool Companies, and we appreciate you joining us today.

All right. Thanks so much for having me.

It's been fun. Current. If you want to learn more about CONNECT and explore resources across San Diego's innovation ecosystem, follow us on LinkedIn or visit connect.org. We'll see you next time on The CONNECT Current, where San Diego's innovation story keeps moving forward.

This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.