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Voltic

Electric cargo ships

Voltic is launching US-built cargo ships that are 4x more profitable than diesel vessels. We have $100M+ in sales to companies including the largest US shipping company and the largest global shipper by volume. We are on pace for our first commercial deployment in early 2026. The team previously started two shipping lines and has decades of experience in maritime innovation. Our patented battery & solar tech stack was spun out of MIT’s Ocean Engineering department. We are backed by top investors like the largest maritime VC in the world.
Active Founders
Prosser Cathey
Prosser Cathey
Founder
Prosser is the founder and CEO of Voltic. He is excited to make the shipping industry greener and more efficient. Prosser grew up in Ligonier, PA, where he was the oldest of five siblings. He graduated from MIT in three years with multiple majors, winning a Fulbright upon graduation to study the auto industry's transition to EVs. He also rowed for MIT's D1 Heavyweight Crew team, with whom he won a Gold Medal at Head of the Charles. In his free time, he enjoys pizza, movies and skiing.
Company Launches
Voltic: electric cargo ships
See original launch post

tl;dr - We’re building electric cargo ships that are zero-emission and 3x more profitable than existing ships.

Hey everyone! This is Prosser from Voltic. We’re creating electric cargo ships that are greener and cheaper than current options.

🚢 THE PROBLEM

Shipping is a massive industry that contributes 2.2% of the world’s CO2 emissions, 15% of the world’s NOx emissions and 13% of the world’s SOx emissions (Source). In other words, approximately 816,640,000,000 kg (.8 gigatons) of carbon dioxide is emitted by ships every year (Source). There is currently no generally accepted path to full sustainability for the industry.

At the same time, fuel is an enormous operating cost for ships. Ranging from 50% at shipping’s most efficient to 75% on fast or heavy routes when fuel prices are high, cargo prices are highly dependent on fuel prices (Source). This means our ships will not only be great for the environment but also sustainably cheaper than current alternatives.

⚡ OUR SOLUTION

Supported by grants from the Department of Energy, we designed a solar and battery tech stack that can completely power a container ship at standard operating speeds. Unlike most hardware startups working on difficult engineering problems, we do not have a multi-year, multi-round path to profitability. We already have our first customer, and expect our first ship to be operational in the near future. This will be the first step towards building out a fleet of zero-emission vessels. Long term, we want to fully power the shipping industry via electricity, operating a fleet that can serve any route in the world. 🚢 🚢 🚢

Email contact@volticshipping.com for inquiries or contacts.

And give our LinkedIn page a follow :)

Jobs at Voltic
Boston, MA, US / New York, NY, US / Remote (US)
$200K
3.00%
11+ years
Voltic
Founded:2022
Batch:Summer 2022
Team Size:5
Status:
Active
Primary Partner:Harj Taggar