America’s low ranking in richest and most innovative don’t speak for what author Gary Shapiro aptly described several years ago as Americans’ knack for “outside-the-box thinking”. Shapiro writes: “We may not be the best at basics, but we are phenomenal at teaching students to challenge the status quo. Our First Amendment, our immigrant and diverse culture, our ‘can-do’ attitude and our entrepreneurial spirit come together to produce a nation of innovators. We lead the world in Internet innovation, music, movies, biotech and many other technological fields that require out-of-the-box thinking. From Apple to DreamWorks Studios, from Amazon to Zynga, we are the world’s innovators.”
Indeed the list of innovators tackling issues in the maritime industry based in the US is impressive: of 119 companies, more than half, 60 are based in the US, which is telling. Informa Connect was one of the first content outlets to report on the emerging startup ecosystem in 2017 (and again in 2019). From Planck Aerosystems with its drone technology to freight forwarder Flexport (which Inc. magazine voted 8th fastest growing private company in the US), startups are solving the problems created by an extremely fast-paced digital transformation hitting a particularly conservative industry.
Chris Clott, Director, New York Maritime Innovation Center and ABS Chair Marine Transportation & Logistics, SUNY Maritime College gave us a great rundown of what the startup innovation ecosystem in the US looks like right now. “Innovations for the maritime industry are coming from different locations in North America in the realm of alternative energies, supply chain optimization, artificial intelligence and digitization. Within the digital arena are Silicon Valley derived firms such as Clear Metal and Flexport with Xeneta and Nautilus Labs in New York applying digital solutions that support the shipping industry. The use of AI and Robotics will accelerate in the next few years with companies such as Sea Machines Robotics in Boston and IO Currents in Seattle. AI is the future of shipping. There are many new ‘visibility’ startups and inevitably there will be a shake-out of many of these firms once they have gone through their initial seed funding.”
Clott also pointed out the emergence of several new North American maritime startup accelerators and hubs: “In Nova Scotia an innovation hub has been established, and innovation groups such as New York Maritime Innovation Center (NYMIC) and Sea Ahead in Boston are spurring development of blue economy start up ideas. Seattle has a new accelerator called Maritime Blue and we’re seeing cruise industry and port innovation coming from Miami.”
We first met Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA when he was a Partner at KEC Ventures, he was one of the first people we encountered who was creating really compelling content about digitalization and the maritime supply chain; particularly interesting was his extensive Industry Study: Ocean Freight Shipping (#Startups) at his blog “Innovation Footprints”. Since then he’s been involved in too many ventures to name here, including co-founding The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation, The New York Supply Chain Meetup and REFASHIOND Ventures “an emerging venture capital fund that is being built to invest in and champion startups refashioning global supply chains”.
Brian Laung Aoaeh offered this analysis of why he thinks America has incredible potential at this moment in time: “Economic history suggests that the United States has generally been a more risk-seeking society than other capitalist societies, certainly more so than those of Asia and Europe. Another feature of innovation in the United States that is somewhat unique is that, broadly speaking, there is a larger prevalence of bottom-up participation than in Europe or Asia - this makes sense, given the risk-seeking nature of American society.”
“From the perspective of society as a whole, this is a useful feature when one is engaged in an activity characterized by extreme uncertainty. These are activities where top-down mandates cannot guarantee success. Because of the huge role that uncertainty plays in such endeavors, these are also activities where individuals acting outside the official and top-down mandates of government, or established big business interests, may stand a better chance of success than one would initially assume.”
“That is why my faith is in American innovation to meet and overcome the challenges of the global maritime industry. I am not saying that government and big business involvement in fostering innovation is unnecessary. However, once the government and big businesses have played their role, I believe that American innovators will come out on top more often than not.”
Last year a New York maritime startup called Nautilus Labs made a big splash in the news with an $11 million Series A funding round from Microsoft Corp.’s venture arm, M12. Nautilus Labs’ site explains what their maritime technology does: “Nautilus provides ship owners and operators with predictive analytics to reduce fuel consumption, optimize fleet performance, and maximize ROI.”
With the world’s eyes focused on the shipping industry’s carbon emissions, it couldn’t be a better time for it to utilize emerging technologies to combat the industry’s contribution to pollution. We got a chance to speak with their CEO, Matt Heider, and he offered both reasons as to why America is unique in its innovation offerings, and a reminder that maritime issues are indeed Global issues. Matt Heider: "If you're looking at innovation in terms of access to resources, then the United States definitely has a leg up: it's the birthplace of SaaS, the home of start-up venture capital, and it has the greatest concentration of tech talent to solve myriad problems across industries.
That said, international trade, ocean commerce, and greenhouse gas emissions are global in nature, and require focused and consistent transnational collaboration. We are all stakeholders in a single ecosystem and to be great stewards of the ocean—we have to be intentional and accountable."
Cameron Amigo, Global IT and Data Management Lead at SPIMarine and a speaker at our upcoming CMA Shipping event agrees that America is uniquely positioned to innovate in maritime, but warns that tech can only be successful when innovation is also happening with “people and process”.
Amigo explains: “Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Oracle, Salesforce, and Facebook have proven to be global innovators. There are more maritime startups focused on technology now than in the history of the maritime industry. Additionally, the market for digital services like DA Desk, Clear Lynx, Spire Maritime, Q88, etc. are also evidence that the maritime industry is embracing the benefits of technology, albeit slowly. These technologies have helped level the playing field in all industries for digital innovation due to their lowering the barrier to entry and low code capabilities.”
“When it comes to new technology, there are three main components to its success – the technology itself, processes, and people. As it stands right now, there are more tech options for maritime than we could imagine, however, what’s lacking are organizations willing to change their process and culture to maximize these technologies. The technology is the easiest part of the revolution – the people and process are what must innovate. The digital literacy and perception of technology in maritime must be a priority. Organizations that establish a learning culture and allow for failure will be the ones who win.”
