Wilhelmsen and Rainmaking Innovation, a specialist in venture building, spin-outs and rapid scaling, have announced a partnership which will see the firms combine their differing areas of expertise to accelerate and scale maritime technology products.
The new partnership aims to spin-out and scale-up existing systems researched and developed by Wilhelmsen with the potential for adoption across the industry. Wilhelmsen’s newly developed Digi Boiler system is the first project that has been earmarked to benefit from this collaboration.
The Digi Boiler automated boiler water dosing system monitors boiler water condition and doses with chemicals as and when they are needed. Additional functionality includes real-time condition monitoring of the equipment and data collection for review by the vessel’s crew and onshore staff, via a custom-made portal.
“We are thrilled to be able to partner with a company like Rainmaking to help us scale solutions we believe have the potential to become new growth ventures in the industry. This partnership will enable us to bring invaluable solutions, such as Digi Boiler, to a bigger market in a more scalable way,” said Kjell André Engen, VP Marine Products at Wilhelmsen.
With the initial agreement now signed, a multidisciplinary team including product specialists and venture builders is currently being put together, the companies said.
“Together with Rainmaking Innovation, Wilhelmsen is embarking on a new journey that will allow many of their innovative solutions to simultaneously benefit from the best of the corporate world and that of entrepreneurship. Bridging these two worlds is essential for growth and renewal in the industry,” added Michael Pomerleau, Partner, Rainmaking Innovation.
“The Digi Boiler solution is a great example of how Wilhelmsen is solving an important problem in the industry but where actually the opportunity space related to this is much bigger than the current solution. Ultimately this is about the digitisation and optimisation of operational processes critical to the global merchant fleet – which is a huge untapped space.”
