why
We strive to make our oceans healthy.
The health of our oceans is directly linked to all life on earth, yet 95% of our oceans are unknown. We believe that threats posed to nature and society, by e.g. climate change or plastic pollution, need to be tackled and understood using real-time, objective and automated tools. This is what we provide with our technology.
Our Team
Our passion for the ocean is shared with our passion for our unique technology. We share and enjoy responsibilities, love to be challenged and enjoy experiencing steep learning curves. We enjoy our journey together, both above and underwater.
Backstory
Planblue is a spin-off company from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPI-MM) in Bremen (Germany). With the support from the EXIST Start-up program and the accelerator Climate-KIC, the four founders started planblue in 2017.
Motivation
Unlike studies of the earth’s atmosphere and land surfaces (satellites), changes to our seafloor remains largely undocumented. Oceans cover two-thirds of the earth’s surface, yet 95% of its seafloor areas are unknown. This is surprising to us, as monitoring changes to our seafloor is essential. Healthy seafloor areas are the fundament for healthy oceans, and our oceans are important to all life on earth (e.g., source of food, regulation of climate, carbon sequestration, coastal protection).
We believe that threats posed to nature and society by e.g. climate change or (plastic waste) pollution need to be tackled and understood using real-time, objective and automated tools. Our mission is to standardize seafloor monitoring, make our technology accessible to anyone, and establish a unique Seafloor Database that will benefit us now (e.g., climate legislation), as well as future generations.
Important note: Our technology is not to be used to exploit or damage our oceans.
Thank you for the great support!
Sponsors
Supporters
Partners
This is us
Hannah Brocke
Co-Founder & CSO
Hi! I am the CSO of planblue. I enjoy finding solutions and new potentials for our business, as well as strategically building networks and infrastructures for our team and company.
Joost den Haan
Co-Founder & CEO
Hi! I am the CEO of planblue. I am very passionate to spread the word on the importance of our seafloor using the latest technologies, involving the general public and politicians, not only researchers.
Raja Kandukuri
Co-Founder & CIO
Hi, I am the CIO of planblue. My personal motivation is to find and integrate the latest state-of-the-art technology to solve difficulties arising while monitoring the seafloor.
Guy Rigot
Co-Founder & CTO
Hi there! I am the CTO of planblue. I enjoy the challenge of looking for the very best developments and implementations for our technology, but also getting the job done in time.
Nils Öhlmann
Development Engineer
Naomi Esken
Project Director
Marten Ellssel
Software Architect
Wietse Boer
Business Operations Manager
Helge Staedtler
Senior Software Engineer
Christoph Schroeder
User Experience Lead
Anna-Lea Lesage
Data Scientist
Shikha Thakur
User Experience Research Intern
Hédi Bokri
Mechanical Systems Engineer
Tadzio Holtrop
Data Scientist
Rodislav Driben
Senior Data Scientist
Martina Hahler
Product Owner
Anna Menneking
People & Culture Lead
Hermen Westerbeeke
Commercial Director
Martin Paar
Project Operator & Carbon Sequestration Expert
