Inmarsat reports that it has fast-tracked two start-ups into its Certified Application Provider programme, as part of a ‘Decarbonising Shipping’ initiative run by venture developer Rainmaking.
Systems offered by VesselBot and PortXchange have been supported by Rainmaking’s Trade and Transport Impact initiative, which seeks to harness technology to meet UN targets on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
VesselBot’s ‘Voyage TCE Optimization Decision Support System’ software uses AI models that draw on both market and vessel data to support operational decision-making and increase voyage profitability. In addition to providing speed and routing optimisation based on weather conditions, the application offers bunker procurement recommendations using real time data and measures time charter equivalent (TCE) performance at prevailing hire rates.
PortXchange is a digital collaboration platform for sharing real-time operational data from all local parties involved in a port call, standardising it, and creating a ‘single point of truth’ for shipping lines, carriers, agents, terminals, and port authorities to monitor all activities before and during the call. Started at the Port of Rotterdam, the PortXchange platform is now used in ports across Europe, the UK and US.
In signing up as CAP participants, the companies will integrate their applications with Inmarsat’s Fleet Data IoT platform, which collects data from onboard sensors, pre-processes it and uploads it to a central cloud-based database equipped with an Application Process Interface (API) that is accessible to approved software systems.
“We believe these solutions will find ready audiences in the shipping market because both use digital innovation to meet the key industry challenge of decarbonisation,” said Marco Cristoforo Camporeale, Head of Digital Solutions, Inmarsat Maritime.
“We are very proud that our CAP programme continues to provide the ecosystem for digital problem solvers to bring their solutions to market quickly and seamlessly.”
