With a quarter of the world’s goods passing through the Singapore Strait each year, a recent Trade 2.0 Singapore Maritime Start-up and Innovation Ecosystem report, published by Inmarsat’s Research Programme describes the island city-state as ‘The Startup Magnet’.
Singapore’s maritime IT market alone is forecast to generate US$2.4billion in 2021 and reach US$4.8billion by 2030.
“Singapore is a maritime technology ‘David’ in a world of ‘Goliaths’ with a unique, agile and rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem for start-ups,” says Ronald Spithout, President, Inmarsat Maritime.
Two Singaporean accelerators are driving innovation for the shipping and offshore sectors. Pier 71, 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 Ship management.
Meanwhile, the Techstars/Eastern Pacific Shipping ‘MaritimeTech Accelerator’ has provided a home to 18 emerging technology companies.
Greywing was originally a platform aimed at making it easier for ship operators to access security resources by matching suppliers with clients, for example. The COVID-19 crewing crisis led to its repositioning as a tool to get crews safely home by analysing data and controls from 100,000 ports, including immigration restrictions, visas and flight availability.
COVID-19 also encouraged Aeras Medical to expand its digital platform to include remote video ‘Fit-to-Travel’ services, allowing doctors to certify crew without physically boarding the vessel.
The report marks the second country-specific study of start-ups and their impact on maritime digitalisation. It builds on a global Trade 2.0 report launched in 2019 and the Japan Trade 2.0 report published in April 2020.
To view the full report, click here.
