Organisation:
Inmarsat, Startup Wharf, Thetius
Resource Link:
Trade 2.0 – Maritime Startup and Innovation Ecosystem Report
Published in 2021, Link
My Key Takeaways
“If it takes a long time for larger economies to turn the ship…”
“Then may Singapore (SG) be a tug.”
“Small, powerful, nimble, & hopefully able to safely guide the world’s maritime industry through the complexities of the 21st century.”
🛥️🇸🇬
My takeaways from a report by Inmarsat, Startup Wharf Ltd, and Thetius:
Singapore’s 5,000 maritime companies and institutions employ 170,000 people and contribute 7% to the country’s economy.
The city state’s maritime info communications and technology market would grow 7.9% annually from a tenth ($2.4 billion) of the country’s maritime economy, to a fifth ($4.8 billion) by 2030!
Who could help your tech company enter Singapore’s and Southeast Asia’s maritime ecosystem? [Pg 16]
🔱 Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA)
– Launched in April 2021, you can find MPA’s Maritime Drone Estate Testbed (MDE) near Marina South Pier. With close proximity to the anchorages, the MDE provides a conducive space to test bed and develop drone technologies for maritime applications such as shore-to-ship deliveries and remote ship inspections.
F-drones’ collab with Eastern Pacific Shipping on ship-to-shore drone delivery was made possible due to this.
– In June 2020, MPA & Enterprise Singapore’s SEEDS announced S$50M of capital funding for maritime tech, with additional co-investment from 6 VCs:
- Innoport
- TecPier
- Motion Ventures
- KSL Maritime Ventures – a CVC with biz across ship building, real estate, agriculture.
- PSA Singapore‘s (one of the world’s largest terminal operators) PSA unboXed – accelerator & investor targeting the container logistics sector.
- Quest Ventures
🔱 BLOCK71 Singapore – one of the country’s largest tech hub with more than 1,0p0 startups
🔱 PIER71 – Their annual Smart Port Challenge competition has orchestrated more than 80 maritime corporate-startup co-innovation opportunities.
Their network includes big maritime names like Wilhelmsen, Pacific International Lines, Ocean Network Express, BP, Cargotec, Wärtsilä, Vopak, Bernhard Schulte, OMC shipping, Teekay etc.
🔱 SGInnovate – key government-linked stakeholder/investor supporting deeptech founders/startups (Pg 26)
🔱 Eastern Pacific Shipping Shipping – Techstars Maritime Tech Accelerator – 9 startups/year, with EPS as a large anchor customer/testbed (page 29)
Success cases of expansion into SG’s maritime ecosystem [Pg 15]
1) Denmark’s Riverr Pte. Ltd.
2) New York City’s Nautilus Labs
3) Norway’s ScanReach
The outsider’s mindset – forged from the country’s history of immigration and highly global and mobile talent base.
43% of companies in the Fortune 500 were founded or co-founded by immigrants or their children. Immigrants are also 2x as likely to become entrepreneurs [story of unicorn CXA, Pg 11]
Nearly 40% of SG’s population are not born here. The outsider’s mindset helps the country question assumptions & conventions in incumbent industries.
SG’s innovation ecosystem needs to continue to be a warm & welcoming place for the best maritime technologists, experts & entrepreneurs – local & foreign.
Tangible importance of ecosystem proximity and density [Pg 13]
An ecosystem with 1,000 startups generates $5.1 million per startup in economic value.
For 3,000 the figure becomes $8.7 million.
An ecosystem that is three times larger generates five times more in economic value!
Singapore is just 50km-wide and home to:
– Almost 6 million people with diverse backgrounds
– Two of the universities ranked 11th & 12th globally
– 80 of the top 100 tech giants
– 55,000 startups
Go figure! 😉
My LinkedIn post here.
About Zhilin SIM
Having worked and lived in Singapore, the Nordics, China, Spain, UK, I’m now based in Paris.
I’m fluent in English, French and Mandarin, and I’m learning Arabic because it’s a beautiful and fascinating language.
My team creates and supports 1-many initiatives connecting Corporate and Startup ecosystems in Europe to business and innovation opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
I’m passionate about horticulture, watercolour, startups/tech as well as French cuisine, Peranakan kueh techniques and other global cuisines.
Feel free to connect with me if you think my network in Europe and Asia could be of benefit to your business and innovation activities.
