Kraken Robotics is a marine technology company that designs, develops, and markets advanced sonar and laser sensors, as well as systems and subsea power solutions for unmanned underwater vehicles for military and commercial purposes. Kraken is known as an innovator in Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) technology – SAS is a revolutionary underwater imaging technology that provides extremely high-resolution images with superior coverage, dramatically improving seafloor surveys.
Kraken’s SAS product line, AquaPix®, leverages nearly two decades of research and development conducted by NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, supported by NATO sponsors. AquaPix® offers comparable performance to current state-of-the-art military systems at a fraction of the cost. This allows Kraken to offer the highest quality and the lowest pixel prices on the market.
Kraken has grown continuously since its inception, and now offers a fully integrated product suite, including thrusters, batteries, sensors, vehicles, and launch and recovery systems. This growth enables Kraken to expand its Robotics as a Service (RaaS) business, which provides customers with an end-to-end service. Kraken’s team leads project planning, subsea surveys, and delivers a complete data package at the end of the contract.
So where does the “Tesla” in the title come from? Kraken has an internal mantra: innovate or die. Kraken strives to think outside the box and develop products that shape the world. And something catchy was needed to grab your attention. I think I succeeded, didn’t I?
Now that’s a logo/name/brand that would make me want to buy a tracking position based on those alone It’s like a mysterious tech company from a Bond movie, with its headquarters carved into the base of a volcano and the CEO wearing an eye patch.
More seriously, thanks for the opening post! It seems interesting and I’ll have to look into it more closely.
An interesting opening, indeed. The stock has not been a rocket this year. What is the reason for the forecast of over 100% revenue growth next year and a sudden jump to 25% for negative EBIT-%? Is something revolutionary happening?
Yes, orders from the Danish and Polish navies, with the first advance payments of approximately CAD 8.8 million due in Q4 this year.
Last year’s revenue was just over CAD 15 million, and with the figures reported in the Q3 report, we’re already reaching around 20 million this year. On top of that, there’s the normal Q4 revenue.
Below is the impact of the order for future years.
In addition, Ocean Infinity, which owns just under 15% of Kraken, is building an unmanned ocean research fleet, with the first vessels to be delivered in 2021. These vessels may potentially include Kraken’s towed Katfishes with launch platforms.
I owned this sometime before corona. The price seems to be the same now as when I sold it (or slightly lower, I don’t remember exactly). Interesting company and good products. I mean, the best in its field. Should I buy it back for “nostalgia”
This one is vague, but you can find the main points in bullet form. Based on that, you can decide if you want to bother with the Business Insights report.
I came across a guy on YouTube who is bullish on Kraken’s competitor: MIND Technology, Inc. $MIND.
I don’t know which one is better, both seem almost too good. In the video, the man compares the technology of these two companies and creates the impression that Mind’s approach is more usable. He’s clearly not an expert, but what do you think? Kraken or Mind Technology?
I need to get to know MIND better. At a quick glance, the depletion of capital at the company level is a bit concerning, and since the revenue has also been stagnating for a few years, and there’s no real rocket-turnaround in sight, I can’t really say what their future holds. I won’t dismiss it outright, because I haven’t looked into it for more than 15 minutes, but…
Having followed the company for a year myself, yesterday there was no news or anything else, the stock first went up +30% and then closed at -28%. Did someone profit from shorting? Mind and Kraken are competitors, but in the industry, both are small players. So, in a way, they compete for some of the same customers and target groups, namely smaller commercial and defense deals, which the big players don’t bother to compete for and lower their prices. I believe that both can coexist well in the industry, and consolidation has happened and will continue to happen in this sector.
Maybe this was a famous pump and dump. Penny stock volatility, trading volume was about 35x the average. After-market was up significantly again.
Mind’s Q3 earnings report stated that the pandemic had a slowing effect on the shipping industry, but Kraken still clinched those Danish and Polish deals in September, or at least announced them in September. Kraken frankly seems like a better company, but it’s also priced over four times more valuable.
Somewhere, the market size was mentioned as about 5 billion dollars (I might have misunderstood) which does sound small, but if companies’ annual revenue revolves around a few tens of millions, then there’s room for growth.
According to Yahoo, insider ownership in MIND is about 6%, which is relatively high, but in Kraken, it’s as high as 30%. Could this be true?
Kraken won the Danish Navy contract in October 2019. One of the losing bidders disputed the matter. Legal proceedings and the coronavirus delayed the resolution until this autumn.
Four companies participated in the tender:
“Kraken, Northrop Grumman International Trading, Thales DMS France, and Klein Marine Systems were the four companies who were evaluated.”
Apparently, Klein Marine Systems, a subsidiary of Mind Technologies, suffered a loss. This is interesting because the hype around Mind seems to be largely built on the promise of deals with the US Navy. This, however, seems at least somewhat less likely if Kraken snatches smaller deals right from under their noses. Denmark and Poland are also NATO countries, though. One would think that even larger companies would be interested in the lucrative deals from the US Navy.
"Teledyne Gavia, manufacturer of Gavia, SeaRaptor and Osprey AUVs, has integrated the Kraken Robotics MINSAS Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) into its vehicles.
The MINSAS is an off the shelf configurable Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) which replaces high end sidescan systems at an affordable price, while delivering significantly higher resolution, range, and area coverage rates (ACR).
The increased range and resolution and associated higher ACR of SAS over traditional systems can significantly expand the capabilities of Teledyne Gavia AUV systems for a variety of tasks for naval, scientific and commercial applications. During the initial integration of the Kraken MINSAS at Teledyne Gavia facilities in Kopavogur Iceland a Gavia class vehicle was utilized.
Due to the modular design of the Gavia AUV it was possible to use a Kraken MINSAS demonstration payload that was designed for a third party AUV along with a Gavia module adaptor to conduct sea trials.
The ability of Gavia AUVs to carry payloads from other commercially available AUV systems further highlights the benefits of a truly plug and play modular system for unmatched versatility.
The Integration and testing of the MINSAS culminated in operations with the Icelandic Coast Guard to examine targets of interest including what is believed to be the remnant of a B-24 bomber operated by the RAF for ASW patrols during WW2 and shipwrecks from the same period found in Icelandic waters.
Equipping the Gavia AUV with Synthetic Aperture Sonar enables the Gavia AUV to provide both bathymetry and high resolution / high area coverage sonar coverage which is ideally suited for a variety of applications including mine countermeasures, SAR and other operations where speed of response and actionable data are paramount.
The low logistics Gavia class vehicles will utilize the MINSAS 60 system while the larger Osprey and SeaRaptor AUVs are capable of carrying the larger MINSAS 120 configuration."
It’s like a mysterious tech company from a Bond movie, with its headquarters carved into the base of a volcano and the CEO wearing an eye patch.
Below is the impact of the order for future years.
