About Us

SmartBuoy
Who we are

SmartBuoy team on the water

SmartBuoy develops smart buoys to make mooring safer, more comfortable and ecologically more responsible. We are skippers, technicians and entrepreneurs with a shared conviction: Technology should make life on the water simpler, not more complicated. And it should protect nature, not pollute it.

Smart buoys for skippers by skippers

How it all began

SmartBuoy was founded in 2023. The idea originated not in an office, but on a private boat trip.

Our founders Michi and Georg, managing directors of a yacht building company, faced an everyday problem: not being able to moor where they actually wanted, but only where a buoy happened to be free.

  • unnecessary buoy searching
  • additional trips
  • fuel waste
  • stress at the end of an actually beautiful day

From this frustration arose a simple question: Why is there no plannable, fair and sustainable solution for buoy spots? The answer is SmartBuoy.

From Concept to Buoy

SmartBuoy is the result of years of development, testing and learning cycles. Step by step from idea to market-ready solution.

2019

First idea and concept development

2019

2020

FFG Project 1 – Development of a first prototype

2020

2021

Weathering, load and system tests

2021

2022

Field tests in Austria and Croatia under real conditions

2022

2021-2022

FFG Project 2 – Revision of hardware and development of the buoy recognition algorithm

2021-2022

2023

Tech2B Activate – Validation of the business model and founding

2023

2025

Pre-series & design development. Further product and brand work (Novo)

2025

2024-2025

Tech2B Incubate – Product maturity, scaling, partnerships. Partnership with Danube Dynamics (Embedded Development)

2024-2025

2026

Planned sales launch

2026