Manu Ignatius

The CEO of Subnero on how he hopes to build an “internet of underwater things”

Compared to our advanced communication infrastructure on land, underwater communication networks are lagging far behind. But Manu Ignatius wants to change this. “At the moment, underwater communication is similar to old analogue telephone lines, where the communication links are from point A to point B,” says the CEO of Subnero, a startup developing high‑performance, wireless underwater communication, navigation, monitoring and sensing solutions for environmental, defence, and oil and gas companies.

“In the future, we hope to have a true ‘internet of underwater things’, where any device will be able to connect to the internet as we do on land today—without setting up customised networks.”

Ignatius’ personal connection to the ocean is deep‑rooted, having grown up in the coastal state of Kerala in India. As a child, he would spend most of his days wandering and playing around rivers and beaches. He later moved to Singapore to pursue his master’s in computer engineering, focused on wireless networks, and took up a research engineer role at the Acoustic Research Laboratory within the Tropical Marine Science Institute of the National University of Singapore. This path eventually led him to Subnero in 2013, where the work is part of a bigger mission of his to make technologies like Subnero’s affordable and accessible to those who need them.

Subnero wants to democratise access to technologies like ours,

because we believe that our products and solutions can have an impact on how societies evolve in the long run.

With computer engineering, the possibilities are endless.

I chose to go into it because I love imagining and building new things. I enjoy the technicalities of the field, but also the creative freedom it offers.

A leader should have a sense of ownership and integrity.

If you are not ready to take responsibility for your actions, especially when things go wrong, it would be difficult to expect the same from your team. Similarly with integrity, you will sometimes have to make difficult choices as a leader and regardless what that means to others, they will at least appreciate you for being honest about your decisions.

I’ve been extremely lucky to have had a good life so far, but a few difficult experiences have certainly helped in making me who I am today.

I won’t go into the specifics, but there was one time where I realised I was not in control of my life and it was instead dependent on the decisions of others. I felt helpless at first, but it later made me realise that choosing my own path and losing is always preferable to following someone else’s path in life.