WOODS HOLE – The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has sold its controlling interest in a Pocasset mooring systems company.
EOM Offshore was founded as a start-up in 2010 to commercialize technology developed by WHOI engineers.
The highly stretchable, fatigue-resistant hoses transmit power and data to and from undersea sensors
The patented Electromagnetic Stretch Hoses connect surface buoys to undersea mooring lines loaded with oceanographic instruments. The hoses are capable of stretching and contracting to accommodate the movement of buoys on the ocean surface.
The company started with a $500,000 investment from WHOI and was appraised at $2.8 million in December 2016.
WHOI sold it 68 percent ownership interest to EOM’s management team and other investors for $1.8 million.
“EOM Offshore is emblematic of advanced marine technology spawned at WHOI by its ingenious scientists and engineers,” said Dr. David Aubrey, chief executive officer of EOM, who was a WHOI scientist for 22 years. “New ownership is grateful to work with those same brilliant founders to continue EOM’s product and service excellence, while providing WHOI with an ongoing royalty stream that will contribute to WHOI’s continued ocean leadership.”
“This is testimony to WHOI’s commitment to translate the research results of our innovative technical staff into products,” said David Knaack, director of technology transfer at WHOI. Over the last four decades, 19 startups and affiliated companies have emerged from WHOI.
EOM stretch hose are being used in the newly launched Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $386 million project funded by National Science Foundation to establish long-term oceanographic platforms equipped with sensors that can monitor ocean conditions 24/7 for decades.
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