Candela

Candela has done what no other electric-marine company has: turned hydrofoil physics into a shipping product line with a global order book. Computer-controlled foils cut energy use by roughly 80% at speed, and the P-12 ferry — 30 passengers at ~25 knots — has been carrying Stockholm transit passengers since 2024, the world's first electric hydrofoil ferry in scheduled public service. The commercial validation now spans continents: more than 65 P-12s on order as of March 2026, including a firm eight-vessel order from Saudi Arabia's NEOM signed in August 2024, an 11-vessel order from Mumbai operator JalVimana — billed as the world's largest electric hydrofoil fleet order, cutting the Navi Mumbai airport connection from about two hours to 35 minutes — a ten-boat Thailand agreement, and Meridian Energy's zero-wake service on New Zealand's Lake Manapōuri. The March 2026 €30M round (EQT Ventures and SEB returning, the IFC contributing €8M) took total funding to €129M and funds a second factory in Gdańsk, lifting combined capacity toward 100 boats a year by 2027 — series production, not yacht-building. The C-8 daycruiser anchors the consumer side with over 150 orders and record-setting crossings (first electric boat across the Baltic, first across the Mediterranean in 2025), while Groupe Beneteau, the world's largest boatbuilder, sits on the cap table as strategic validation. FlyTahoe's planned Lake Tahoe service would open the US market. Ferries are procurement-driven, subsidy-supported, and desperate to decarbonize; Candela owns the only proven answer that is also faster than the diesel incumbent.

Candela's growth is now coming from everywhere except its home market — leadership has reportedly described the European rollout environment as "more or less dead," which is why the order book leans on NEOM, Mumbai, and Thailand: buyers with concentrated political will and, in the Saudi case, reputational baggage and program risk that European transit agencies don't carry. The order math needs scrutiny: "more than 65 P-12s on order" is a mix of firm contracts, staged deliveries, and operator agreements whose financing must still close, purchased by ferry operators who have never run foiling vessels and whose maintenance ecosystems don't yet exist. Scaling is the classic hardware trap — €129M in total funding is thin for simultaneously running a Stockholm plant, building a Gdańsk factory to 2027, supporting fleets across four continents, and sustaining a consumer boat line, and the March 2026 raise of €30M is modest against that footprint, suggesting the growth is being financed hand-to-mouth. The US, potentially the richest ferry market, is structurally gated: the Jones Act requires US-built hulls, so the FlyTahoe launch depends on standing up American manufacturing Candela does not have, plus Coast Guard approval still in process. Competition is arriving at both ends — Artemis Technologies' 150-passenger EF-24 is in sea trials with European and US orders, attacking the higher-capacity segment the P-12 cannot serve, while Vessev's certified VS-9 is already in commercial service with Fullers360 and undercuts from below. Hydrofoils remain complex machines in saltwater; one high-profile foil failure in revenue service would damage the entire category's procurement case, and Candela — the flagship name — would absorb it.