St. John’s-based Kraken Robotics has announced the loss of its founder and former CEO Karl Kenny on February 11, at the age of 64.

Kenny founded Kraken in 2012 and was instrumental in building the company into a significant player in subsea robotics over his 10-year tenure, before retiring in December 2022.  

“An ideas man and a builder, Karl’s energy was as relentless as his passion to compete against the bigger industry players,” said Greg Reid, president and CEO of Kraken, in a statement.

“He was an incredible force that drove Kraken to success. On behalf of the board of directors, management, and employees, he will be sorely missed.”

Kenny grew up in a small fishing village in Newfoundland with a deep connection to the sea. Over his 45-year career in the marine technology industry, he led the development of a wide range of advanced marine technologies and products in Canada, the United States, and Europe, the company said.  

He spent time as a maritime surface officer with the Canadian Navy and was always involved in high technology. In the 1980s, he was a part of the Microsoft mouse project team and in the 1990s he formed Telepix, a leader in photo e-commerce solutions. 

He co-founded Marport Deep Sea Technologies in July 2003 and served as its president and CEO until December 2011. In 2012, he founded Kraken to commercialize compact, lower-cost synthetic aperture sonar technology for unmanned systems.

“Karl’s strategic vision and entrepreneurial spirit enabled Kraken, a small startup out of Newfoundland, to punch well above our weight and become recognized world-wide for our high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar technology,” said David Shea, Executive Vice-President and CTO of Kraken.

Kraken has now grown into a publicly listed company with a market cap of $637 million. The company reported its revenue for the first nine months of 2024 was $63.2 million, an increase of 52 percent over the same period in 2023. In the autumn, Kraken completed an equity financing worth $51.7 million.