What Chelonia Limited does

Chelonia Limited is a privately held UK company founded in 2006 and headquartered in Mousehole, Cornwall. It designs and manufactures passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) instruments that detect echolocating marine mammals (porpoises, dolphins, and other toothed whales other than sperm whales) and bats. Its core marine product is the F-POD, supported by the predecessor C-POD; the BatBug extends the same high-resolution time-domain signal-processing architecture to ultrasonic bat monitoring, and C-Sound is a WAVE file logger currently in advanced development.

The underlying technology combines 1MHz sampling (upsampled to 4MHz) with FPGA/PIC parallel processing and proprietary classifiers (KERNO, KERNO-F, Hel1) that identify coherent echolocation click trains rather than individual clicks, achieving false positive rates below one second per year in low-density contexts. Each hydrophone is individually calibrated in an underground acoustic tank to ±0.5dB at 130kHz, and onboard selective data compression exceeding 1000x enables multi-year autonomous deployments on standard 32GB SD cards. Free desktop applications (FPOD.exe, CPOD.exe, BatBug application) and lifetime retrospective software upgrades support all historical data.

Chelonia sells exclusively through direct email sales on a quote basis, with hardware pricing undisclosed publicly. The company also generates professional-services revenue from calibration and repair (standard GBP200 per instrument for testing and calibration), free data-quality feedback that doubles as a classifier improvement loop, and referrals to specialist consultants. Customers include international government and intergovernmental bodies (e.g., the 9-nation SAMBAH consortium, Marine Scotland, NOAA), conservation NGOs (WWF, Vaquita programme), academic institutions (Exeter, St Andrews, BlackCeTrends partners), and indigenous communities (Ungava Bay Inuit). All instruments are supported by a 2-year manufacturing-defect warranty.

Name

Chelonia Limited

Legal name

Chelonia Limited

Website

https://chelonia.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Chelonia Limited designs and manufactures passive acoustic monitoring instruments (F-POD, C-POD, BatBug) and proprietary classification software for detecting cetaceans and bats, selling via direct email quotes to research institutions, government agencies, NGOs, and conservation communities worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Mousehole

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. F-POD Marine Acoustic Recorders: Sale of the F-POD marine cetacean monitoring instrument — Chelonia's primary product. Detection of porpoises, dolphins, and other toothed whales via echolocation click train recognition. Multiple versions available including Deep F-POD (to 2km depth) and LF-POD. Sold directly via email quote with lead times of up to 12 weeks.
2. C-POD Marine Acoustic Recorders: Sale of C-POD (superseded by F-POD but still supported and available second-hand). Detection of NBHF clicks and broadband cetaceans. Sold directly via email quote.
3. BatBug Bat Acoustic Recorders: Sale of BatBug — autonomous bat population monitoring instrument using ultra-fast sampling (4MHz) and real-time parallel processing. Solar-powered option available for remote deployments. 32GB stores one year of high-resolution data. Sold directly via email quote.
4. C-Sound Logger: WAVE file logger in F-POD housing, at advanced development stage but not yet available. Features up to 3TB memory, lossless data compression, sampling rates 16–512k/s. Hydrophone frequency response to be verified by the National Physical Laboratory, London.
5. Servicing and Calibration: Repairs, calibration and re-standardisation of PODs. Standard charge of GBP200 for testing and calibration. PODs guaranteed for 2 years against manufacturing defects. Repairs quoted separately after inspection. Calibration certification available for projects requiring it.
6. Data Quality Feedback: Free brief feedback on quality of datasets for customers who send POD data (FP1/CP1 files) to Chelonia. Any data sent is kept in complete confidence. This drives product improvement and customer retention.
7. Consultancy Referrals: Chelonia refers customers requiring additional support for data quality checking, analysis and interpretation to subject specialists who can quote on a project-by-project basis.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Chelonia designs and manufactures passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) instruments for detecting and classifying echolocating marine mammals (porpoises, dolphins, toothed whales) and bats. The company's flagship is the F-POD, which uses 1MHz sampling upsampled to 4MHz with proprietary KERNO-F click-train classification to achieve extremely low false positive rates. Chelonia also produces the C-POD predecessor, BatBug bat recorder, supporting desktop software, and calibration/servicing services.

Product overview

Chelonia Limited offers a portfolio of passive acoustic monitoring instruments for marine and terrestrial wildlife research. The core product line includes the F-POD (marine cetacean logger), C-POD (previous-generation marine logger), BatBug (ultrasonic bat recorder), and C-Sound (WAVE file marine recorder). These instruments share advanced time-domain signal processing technology developed originally for the F-POD, with sampling rates up to 4MHz and real-time parallel processing for selective data compression. Product variants include the Deep F-POD (up to 2km depth) and LF-POD. The F-POD Integral Acoustic Release is an add-on lid system enabling remote retrieval. All instruments are supported by free desktop software applications (FPOD.exe, CPOD.exe, BatBug app) for data processing, classification, and analysis. Chelonia was formally established in 2006.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• F-POD: Fully automated passive acoustic monitoring instrument for detecting porpoises, dolphins and other toothed whales by recognizing echo-location sounds.
• C-POD
• BatBug
• C-Sound
• CATT

Products and services

• F-POD Passive acoustic monitoring instrument for detecting and classifying cetacean echolocation clicks (porpoises, dolphins, toothed whales except sperm whales) using high-resolution time-domain signal processing at 1MHz sampling upsampled to 4MHz, combined with the proprietary KERNO-F click-train classifier. Provides automated detection, species discrimination into NBHF and other cetacean groups, and free bundled FPOD.exe desktop software. Multiple versions available (F-POD D12, F-POD R25, LF-POD, Deep F-POD) for different deployment needs.
• Deep F-POD Anodized aluminum housing variant of the F-POD rated for deployment depths up to 2km, designed for deep-water studies such as beaked whale monitoring.
• LF-POD Lower-frequency cetacean acoustic logger variant with reduced dimensions and weight for applications requiring different acoustic characteristics than the standard F-POD.
• C-POD Previous-generation cetacean acoustic logger superseded by the F-POD but still supported for existing users. Uses zero-crossing analysis and peak-hold amplitude for click detection with the KERNO classifier for species identification; detection of NBHF clicks and broadband cetaceans.
• BatBug Autonomous bat acoustic recorder using ultra-fast 4MHz sampling with real-time parallel processing to select and store high-resolution bat call details. Supports solar-powered option for remote, year-round deployment; a 32GB SD card stores at least one year of high-resolution bat data. Free Windows desktop application is provided for display, validation, and export of results.
• F-POD Integral Acoustic Release Alternative lid system for the F-POD enabling remote acoustic-triggered retrieval via a deck unit. Supports time-based release scheduling, tether lines up to 80m with 130kg breaking strain, and a design intended to keep the release mechanism free of biofouling; combined with duty cycles and delayed start to support deployments potentially over a year ahead.
• FPOD.exe (F-POD Application) Free desktop application for processing F-POD and C-POD data. Converts .CHE files to .FP1 format, runs the KERNO-F classifier to identify cetacean click trains, and provides visualisation, filtering, and data export tools for users.
• CPOD.exe (C-POD Application) Desktop software for processing C-POD data using the KERNO classifier to find click trains, including final-version settings files for individual POD calibration offsets.
• BatBug Application Windows software for displaying bat data from up to 6 sites in sync, with tools for finding key features, validating detections, and exporting results. Includes user guide and sample data.
• POD Servicing and Calibration Repairs, calibration, and re-standardisation service for POD instruments. Standard charge of GBP200 for testing and calibration; repairs quoted separately after inspection. PODs guaranteed for 2 years against manufacturing parts failure (excluding ingress of water, misuse, violent impacts, or prolonged vibration). Calibration certification is available for projects requiring it.

Quantifiable outcome

• Less than 1 false positive second per year in low-density cetacean monitoring contexts (e.g., Baltic Sea SAMBAH project)
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights8 records

Direct peers

• Titley Scientific: Australia/UK-based maker of the Anabat bat detector family, a long-established competitor in bat acoustic monitoring. Direct peer in the bat detector market with comparable use cases in ecological research and conservation.
• Wildlife Acoustics: US-based maker of bioacoustic monitoring instruments including the Song Meter SM4 bat detector and Echo Meter Touch, with a growing marine offering. Most direct competitor in the bat acoustic recorder market and a credible threat in the cetacean PAM space.
• SoundTrap (Ocean Instruments NZ): New Zealand-based maker of compact underwater acoustic recorders (SoundTrap ST300, ST4300) widely used in marine bioacoustics research. Direct competitor in marine PAM with comparable price points and field-deployable form factor.
• Cetacean Research Technology: US-based maker of the DTAG and other bioacoustic recording tags attached directly to cetaceans. Adjacent direct peer in cetacean acoustic monitoring, though Chelonia's stationary underwater loggers and CRT's animal-attached tags are complementary rather than substitutable in many research designs.
• Loggerhead Instruments: US manufacturer of the Digital Acoustic Recorder (DAR), a programmable underwater acoustic recorder used for marine bioacoustics research. Direct competitor in the marine PAM market with a comparable target customer base of researchers and conservation organisations.
• Ocean Sonics: Canadian manufacturer of the icListen HF Smart Hydrophone, a high-frequency underwater acoustic recorder widely used for cetacean PAM. Direct competitor in the marine cetacean monitoring niche, with comparable frequency response and field deployment focus.
• Pettersson Elektronik: Swedish manufacturer of ultrasonic bat detectors (D240X, D500X, M500) used widely in bat research across Europe. Direct competitor in the bat acoustic monitoring niche with a comparable specialty scientific customer base.

Broad incumbents

• Kongsberg Maritime: Norwegian-headquartered marine technology major with hydroacoustic, sonar, and underwater sensing products. Broad incumbent not specialised in cetacean PAM but with the scale and customer relationships in offshore energy and marine survey that could be levered into wildlife monitoring.
• Teledyne RESON: Part of Teledyne Marine, RESON manufactures high-end hydrophones and underwater acoustic transducers used across defence, survey, and research applications. Broad incumbent with deeper R&D resources and global service infrastructure, not specialised in cetacean PAM but a credible platform extension.
• HBK (Brüel & Kjær): Danish-headquartered global leader in acoustic measurement instruments, with hydrophones, sound level meters, and signal analysis used across industrial, environmental, and research applications. Broad incumbent whose general-purpose acoustic measurement capability could be redirected toward wildlife PAM.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UClhKD1HZCozcy44IJ8fBrKw
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/chelonia-limited

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 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 Chelonia Limited