Rohith Devanathan

Rohith Devanathan is the founder and chief executive of ScrubMarine, where he builds physical AI: autonomous robots that inspect, clean and test the underwater infrastructure global trade runs on. The company is venture-backed and works with major energy and maritime operators.

His route to robotics ran through capital. During his robotics engineering degree he spent a year inside a deep-tech venture fund, sourcing and assessing early-stage investments, and worked in university technology transfer, helping researchers turn ideas into fundable companies. He has been starting and running businesses since his teens.

Veeran Advisory is where his research lives: numbered memoranda and the fortnightly Veeran Brief, written for the people who allocate capital and set policy, investors, operators, institutions and governments, and read in both the UK and India.

Through the Veeran Foundation, he funds education in Tamil Nadu, where he was born, beginning with the refurbishment of a government high school and a programme bringing robotics labs to state schools.