Singapore ‘start-up magnet’ with $2.4bn maritime IT market

The Trade 2.0 Singapore Maritime Start-up and Innovation Ecosystem Report describes the Southeast Asian city state as a “start-up magnet.

The report highlights a thriving accelerator community with state-backed PIER71, founded by the Maritime and Port Authority and NUS Enterprise, has matched start-ups with backers including BP, Wilhelmsen, Pacific International Lines, Ocean Network Express, Cargotec, Wärtsilä, Vopak, and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement. On Tuesday the Singapore government said it aimed to increase the number of start-ups under PIER71 from 30 at present to 100 by 2025.

On the private front Eastern Pacific Shipping partnering with Techstars for the MaritimeTech Accelerator has provided a home to 18 emerging technology companies.

Listen to the recent edition of the Maritime Podcast with Claus Nehmzow, Chief Innovation Officer, Eastern Pacific Shipping talking about their maritime accelerator in Singapore:

“Singapore is a maritime technology ‘David’ in a world of ‘Goliaths’ with a unique, agile and rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem for start-ups,” said Ronald Spithout, President, Inmarsat Maritime.

The maritime IT market is forecast to generate $2.4bn this year and $4.8bn by 2030 according to the report authored by Leonardo Zangrando, Founder of Startup Wharf, and Nick Chubb, Managing Director of maritime innovation consultancy Thetius.

The report highlighted the response by start-ups to Covid-19 Greywing an online maritime security booking platform that pivoted to become a digital crew change solution last year, and Aeras Medical to expand its digital platform to include video for remote doctor consultations with seafarers.

“Enabled by the Fleet Data IoT platform, Inmarsat’s Certified Application Provider (CAP) programme has grown dramatically in Singapore,” added Spithout. “We have five Singapore companies already in the programme, four of which are in scaleup mode. They cover vessel performance, video monitoring, fuel optimisation, crew wellbeing and more, and are among the maritime digitalisation pioneers.”