Nauticus Robotics Inc. (Nasdaq: KITT), one of Houston's newest public companies, nabbed more defense work for its autonomous subsea technology, sending its stock soaring.
Nauticus was awarded a second multimillion-dollar contract by the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit to develop an amphibious, unmanned system using Nauticus' software system ToolKitt. The DIU is organized under the U.S. Department of Defense and issues contracts to commercial companies.
ToolKitt, Nauticus' command and control software platform, is already being used with the U.S. Navy's remotely operated vehicles to develop more autonomous behaviors for the unmanned systems. Nauticus announced receiving a DIU contract to prototype the software platform in February.
"We are thrilled with the additional work the DIU and the U.S. Marine Corps have awarded us to continue providing leading maritime robotics and autonomy solutions to assist the warfighter," said Ed Tovar, Nauticus' director of defense systems business development.
After closing at $3.22 per share on Oct. 4, Nauticus' stock rose over 96% to close at $6.32 per share on Oct. 5, according to Yahoo Finance. The company's stock price closed at $5.33 per share, down 15.66%, on Oct. 6.
Nauticus' stock began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Sept. 13, shortly after the offshore tech firm completed a merger with New York-based special purpose acquisition company CleanTech Acquisition Corp. Shareholders for both companies signed off on the deal on Sept. 6, and the go-public merger between Nauticus and the SPAC was completed on Sept. 9.
In addition to the ToolKitt software platform, Nauticus also develops subsea robots — Aquanauts and Hydronauts — capable of performing complex maneuvers and maintenance underwater. In August, Nauticus announced an agreement with Shell PLC (NYSE: SHEL) to further develop means of acquiring subsea integrity data using Nauticus' robots and technology platforms.
Nauticus was founded as Houston Mechatronics in 2014 by a team of ex-NASA engineers. Nauticus CEO Nicolaus Radford previously led spaceflight and defense robotics engineering efforts while working at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
