Building Breakout Companies: Episode 1 Ventures X Bubble Robotics

On Tuesday 19th May, Entrepreneurs First + Episode 1 Ventures are teaming up for a conversation with Bubble Robotics, one of EF’s leading portfolio companies building the ocean’s autonomous workforce. Founded in 2025 by former robotics engineers from NASA and ETH Zürich, the team recently raised a $5m pre-seed round led by Episode 1 Ventures.

The ocean sits at the center of some of the world’s biggest challenges, yet offshore operations still rely on vessels, crews, and heavy equipment costing up to $100,000 per day. Bubble believes offshore operations should not require humans at sea. Instead of episodic, vessel-led missions, Bubble deploys autonomous robotic systems that can remain offshore continuously, inspecting infrastructure, monitoring environments, and collecting high-resolution underwater data 24/7. The result is a radically lower-cost, scalable, and persistent approach to understanding and maintaining the systems that power and protect life on Earth.

On the 19th we’ll explore how that idea formed, what it takes to build conviction early, and how breakout companies are built before the market agrees.

Come ready with questions.

Panelists:

• Carolina Monck, Investor @ Episode 1 Ventures
• Jean Crosetti, Co-founder and CEO @ Bubble Robotics

Agenda:

• 6.30pm: Arrival
• 7pm: Panel
• 7.45pm: Q&A
• 8.15pm: Networking
• 9pm: End of Event

We care about curated rooms and attendance is not guaranteed. You'll find out whether you have been allocated a space within 3 working days of registering.

**About Bubble: **Founded in 2025 through Entrepreneurs First, Bubble designs and operates fleets of integrated autonomous surface–subsea robotic systems that remain at sea for up to six months, delivering continuous inspection, survey, and underwater monitoring without sending vessels or crews offshore. Their systems generate millimeter-resolution data, which is processed with AI to transform raw observations into actionable insights for infrastructure owners, operators, and public authorities. In April 2026 they announced a $5 million pre-seed round led by Episode 1 Ventures.

**About Episode 1: **Episode 1, the backer of successful companies like Carwow, CloudNC, Raft, Robin AI, TouchSurgery, Zoopla, Omnipresent and Attest, is a VC firm investing in B2B software startups at Pre-Seed and Seed. They invest £500k to £3m into extraordinary teams with real insight into markets that are emerging or evolving, with a particular interest in how emerging “deep tech” technologies are disrupting industry, and how technology is reinventing markets.

**About Entrepreneurs First: **EF turns exceptional individuals into funded founders. Some might have an early idea, others may need a cofounder. What matters is their potential. We back these founders first, then give them a bridge to Silicon Valley. To date, our companies are worth > $15B.