Substructure

What Substructure does

Substructure, Inc. is a privately held, founder-led marine industrial services contractor founded in 1996 and headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with a secondary office in Jamestown, Rhode Island. The company provides fully integrated underwater and waterfront solutions across five core service lines: commercial diving, hydrographic and structural surveys, marine corrosion control, marine design/fabrication/integration, and marine rehabilitation. Service delivery is supported by an in-house engineering and fabrication capability, a proprietary fleet of survey vessels (Orion, Mintaka, custom aluminum barges, and an AWWA-standard reservoir-approved survey barge), and patented equipment including the Advanced Epoxy Pump System covered by USPTO Patent #7357564, a dual-cylinder plural-component pump designed for high-aggregate epoxy encapsulation of marine piles.

The company's revenue model is project-based professional services, with custom-quoted engagements sold directly to enterprise and government clients primarily along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard with selective international project execution (e.g., a 300+ pile encapsulation at a container terminal in Mexico). Named customers span federal agencies (US Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard), state departments of transportation (Maine DOT), municipal utilities (Pennichuck Water Works), enterprise construction and power (Cianbro Corporation, Massachusetts Power Plant), and academic research (UNH Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping). Go-to-market is enterprise field sales with no public pricing and minimal digital marketing; the company relies on direct relationships, RFP responses, industry memberships (UNH CCOM, ASDSO), and documented case studies. Scale signals include 100+ projects completed, 3,000+ square miles surveyed, 15,000 commercial diving man-hours, 386 anodes installed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and 500 piles encapsulated at a bulk cargo terminal over three seasons, alongside a zero-incident HSE track record.

End-markets served include power generation, dams, port facilities, marinas, dredging support, DOT/bridge infrastructure, water works, and government/municipal facilities. Substructure's competitive positioning is built on integrated multidisciplinary delivery — combining engineering, commercial diving, hydrographic surveying, and marine construction under a single contractor — and on custom-built equipment designed for specific applications such as NSF Standard 61-compliant epoxy encapsulation and high-accuracy multibeam data acquisition meeting IHO Special Order standards.

Name

Substructure

Legal name

Substructure, Inc.

Website

https://substructure.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Substructure is a privately held, founder-led marine industrial services firm founded in 1996 that delivers integrated commercial diving, hydrographic surveying, corrosion control, and marine construction to government and enterprise clients across the Eastern U.S. seaboard and select international sites.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marine Industrial Services

NAICS

Ship Building and Repairing (336611), Support Activities for Water Transportation (4883), Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services (54136)

SIC

Ship & Boat Building & Repairing (3730), Construction - Special Trade Contractors (1700)

akta.pro primary industry

Underwater Inspection, Maintenance & Repair (UWILD, Diving/ROV, In-water Cleaning) (IMAJAFAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Underwater Hull Services (Diving, In-Water Cleaning, Propeller Polishing, Inspection) (TLAHAMAL), Port Rehabilitation, Maintenance & Asset Renewal (Repairs, Strengthening) (IMAFAJAL), Marine Service Provider Coordination (Diving, Inspection, Class/Survey Support) (TLAHAJAI)

Keywords

• Marine industrial services
• Commercial diving services
• Hydrographic survey services
• Marine corrosion control
• Underwater marine construction

Headquarters

HQ city

Portsmouth

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Marine Industrial Services Projects: Substructure generates revenue through project-based engagements providing marine services including hydrographic surveys, commercial diving, marine corrosion control, marine design/fabrication/integration, and marine rehabilitation. Projects range from emergency repairs to multi-phase construction programs, typically involving government agencies, port facilities, power plants, and municipalities.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Substructure provides fully integrated marine industrial services including commercial diving, hydrographic and structural surveys, marine corrosion control, marine design/fabrication/integration, and marine rehabilitation. The company combines engineering, commercial diving, hydrographic surveying, and marine construction capabilities under a single contractor, supported by proprietary patented equipment (advanced epoxy pump, USPTO #7357564) and custom-built survey vessels. Projects range from emergency repairs to multi-phase construction programs for government agencies, port facilities, power plants, and municipalities primarily along the Eastern seaboard.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Commercial Diving Highly trained commercial divers performing underwater assessment, marine repair, maintenance, and construction services including contaminated-water and clear-water diving systems for power plants, dams, port facilities, bridges, and marinas.
• Hydrographic and Structural Surveys
• Marine Corrosion Control
• Marine Design, Fabrication and Integration
• Marine Rehabilitation
• Custom-Built and Patented Equipment

Quantifiable outcome

• Completed over 100 marine industrial projects successfully
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments9 records

Ideal customer profiles9 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (UNH CCOM)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSubstructure is a commercial member of UNH CCOM, a national center for expertise in ocean mapping and hydrographic sciences. The partnership involves collaborative research, shared expertise, and professional networking in the hydrographic survey industry. UNH CCOM has selected Substructure for multiple survey projects including navigational safety surveys for NOAA vessel arrivals.
• Association for State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO)minorOthersSubstructure is a member of ASDSO, indicating industry involvement and professional standing in the dam safety and rehabilitation sector.
• Maine Department of TransportationcoreOthersME DOT hired Substructure to conduct high-resolution multibeam surveys for bridge structural assessment and scour assessment on Maine rivers, indicating an ongoing client-contractor relationship.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Manson Construction Co. Established marine construction and dredging contractor serving ports, harbors, and federal clients; overlaps with Substructure in hydrographic survey support and marine infrastructure work but at much larger scale.
• Orion Marine Group: Larger publicly traded marine construction platform (now part of Orion) providing port, harbor, and marine infrastructure services at scale; overlaps with Substructure on pier, pile, and rehabilitation work but operates with substantially broader capacity.
• Cianbro Corporation: Large diversified construction and infrastructure firm with marine/heavy civil capabilities and an existing client relationship with Substructure (emergency bridge power cable repair); broader incumbent with overlapping marine scope but vastly larger footprint.

Direct peers

• J.F. Brennan Company: Marine construction and commercial diving firm serving dams, locks, bridges, harbors, and environmental remediation projects — directly comparable in integrated diving, survey, and rehabilitation delivery.
• Marine Solutions: Specialty marine services firm focused on underwater inspection, repair, and rehabilitation of bridges, dams, and waterfront structures — overlapping core services and customer base with Substructure.
• Global Diving & Salvage: Commercial diving, marine construction, and inspection/repair services across infrastructure, energy, and government markets; comparable scope of underwater services and similar reliance on certified dive teams for dams, ports, and bridges.
• Ballard Marine Construction: Specialty marine contractor offering commercial diving, underwater construction, inspection, and rehabilitation services for dams, bridges, ports, and water infrastructure — directly comparable to Substructure's integrated diving/survey/rehab model.
• Oceanetics, Inc. Marine engineering and survey firm providing hydrographic surveys, instrumentation, and underwater inspection services; comparable in technical hydrography and small-scale federal contract execution.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Substructure