ENGINEERING
BEYOND-HUMAN
CERTAINTY

Sam Mayall founded Zelim after personal loss exposed a critical weakness in maritime safety: people can fall overboard without being detected for far too long. After losing friends at sea, Sam set out to address the stark reality that knowing when someone has fallen in the water is critical to saving them, yet existing technology couldn’t reliably do that.

Driven by that conviction, Sam convened a small team of engineers and maritime specialists, with a focus on applying artificial intelligence and autonomy to extend human capabilities and save lives at sea.

As the team expanded, Zelim’s founders established the company’s first office at Port Edgar, within the HM Coastguard area office – a strategic move that kept Zelim close to frontline maritime operations and testing environments.
Working alongside seafarers, coastguard personnel and industry partners, the team combined real-world operational insight with emerging AI techniques to develop and prototype reliable man-overboard detection and tracking systems, ensuring early engineering decisions were shaped by practical maritime realities rather than theory alone.

Zelim secures seed investment led by Indigo 7 Ventures (I7V), enabling accelerated development of its first rescue vessel concepts.

In the same year, the company unveiled the world’s first unmanned rescue vessel prototype, Guardian – demonstrating how autonomy could play a direct role in saving lives at sea.

With multiple systems in development, Zelim secured its first patents covering unmanned rescue systems, the SWIFT rescue conveyor, and ZOE intelligent monitoring technology.

A second investment round, led by Kero and IV7, completed, raising £2.3m to support further engineering, testing and operational readiness.

Zelim’s Swift recovery conveyor was independently proven to be the fastest man-overboard recovery device on the market, achieving Technology Readiness Level 9 during offshore wind trials with Vattenfall.

Later that year, Zelim signed a collaboration agreement with the United States Coast Guard, marking a major step in international engagement.

Zelim reached several major milestones during this period.

ZOE MOB was installed onboard the Valaris Stavanger jack-up drilling rig, marking the first deployment of its kind within the offshore energy sector.

Guardian 1.0 was launched in Holyhead, Wales, further advancing autonomous rescue capability.

In parallel, Zelim secured a US Navy SBIR contract for ZOE MOB, supporting sailor safety within Carrier Strike Groups in partnership with US collaborator Tedgar.

The company was also selected for NATO DIANA Phase I and completed its Series A investment round with Amati.

First cruise deployment of ZOE MOB onboard Ambition with Ambassador Cruise Line.

Zelim demonstrates ZOE MOB and Lookout at NATO exercise REPMUS, marking the first deployment on a naval vessel.