Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri on July 6, 2026 announced a €600 million rollup that will consolidate four Italian underwater-technology specialists — Next Geosolutions, WSense, Graal Tech and Defcomm — into a single vertically integrated "international underwater champion" spanning autonomous underwater vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, acoustic communications and offshore marine services.
Four Deals, Eight Centers Of Excellence
The transactions bring together approximately 1,500 highly qualified professionals across Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, Norway and the UAE, and pair Fincantieri's existing WASS (submarine systems) and Remazel (launch-and-recovery) capabilities with newly acquired AUV, USV, IoUT and marine-survey expertise. "The acquisitions announced today mark a historic transformation for Fincantieri," CEO Pierroberto Folgiero said. On a pro-forma basis, Fincantieri's Underwater segment is expected to generate €1.1 billion of revenue and €220 million of EBITDA in 2026 — hitting the 2030 targets in its 2026-2030 Business Plan four years early.
NextGeo Anchors A €780M Public-To-Private
The largest slice is Fincantieri's binding agreement with shipping group Marnavi to buy a 52.60% controlling stake in Euronext Growth Milan-listed Next Geosolutions at €16.25 per share, valuing NextGeo at a full €780 million on a 100% basis. Fincantieri will follow with a mandatory tender offer on the free float, delisting NextGeo and turning it into the "Underwater as a Service" backbone across survey, inspection, maintenance and repair.
WSense, Graal Tech, Defcomm — Dual-Use AUV/USV And IoUT
Fincantieri is buying 61.95% of a vehicle holding roughly 95% of WSense, the La Sapienza spin-off whose adaptive wireless underwater modems power Fincantieri's DEEP demonstrator. Graal Tech, a University of Genoa spin-off building modular AUVs, is 51% Fincantieri-owned via an already-signed deal; Defcomm — an Italian USV startup with high-speed, long-endurance autonomous surface craft — starts as a 49% Fincantieri stake with a two-year path to 51% and full consolidation. The transactions are financed through the €500M accelerated bookbuilding capital increase Fincantieri closed in February 2026.
Dual-Use Underwater Market Is The Prize
The underwater segment — spanning submarines, sensors, effectors and "unconventional" underwater solutions — is projected to reach a cumulative €155 billion between 2026-2030, with the unconventional slice growing at roughly 30% CAGR. Fincantieri's rollup lands in the same week that Saildrone unveiled its 52-meter Spectre USV for anti-submarine warfare with Lockheed Martin and follows accelerating defense M&A driven by Helsing's $1.8B Series E. The Italian deal solidifies Europe's ambition to build sovereign underwater capacity as subsea cables and critical infrastructure become live geopolitical targets.
Reporting based on coverage from Fincantieri (press release), Naval News, Splash247 and IndexBox.