On Thursday, Silicon Valley-headquartered global startup incubator Plug and Play announced that it is partnering with Europe’s second-largest shipping port, the Port of Antwerp in Belgium, as well as the City of Antwerp, Belgian shipping and logistics group Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB), operations technology firm DXC, and independent oil shipper Euronav on a new program to support maritime, seafaring and shipping industry innovation.
The program, Plug and Play Maritime, will connect international startups with the aforementioned founding partners to pilot their technologies and drive the future of maritime as world-class leaders of R&D and innovation.
A new voyage
“The launching of our first maritime platform in Antwerp represents the beginning of a new ‘voyage’ for us at Plug and Play,” said Plug and Play CEO Saeed Amidi, of California’s Amidi Group of companies, a major catalyst in the history of Silicon Valley venture capital. “We are eager to support our founding partners and the existing local innovation community through our global ecosystem, by means of impactful startup-corporate collaboration.”
“As one of the leading ports in the world, Antwerp aspires to be the ‘port of the future,'” said Jacques Vandermeiren, Port of Antwerp CEO. “We use innovation as a lever to turn today’s major challenges such as energy transition, digitalization, and mobility into solutions. Through collaboration and implementing technologies such as big data, IoT, smart shipping, and future logistics, we are making our port smarter and more efficient. I believe that Plug and Play Maritime is an important milestone in bringing our port to the next international level and positioning it as a leading innovation platform.”
Antwerp City Vice-Mayor for Economy, Industry and Innovation Claude Marinower said the collaboration was part of Antwerp’s goal to becoming a leading European scale-up city by 2025, a distinction it hopes to achieve by investing in growth clusters like digitalization, circular economy, and maritime activities. Already home to the second largest port in Europe, Antwerp has long been a hub for the maritime industry.
“We are confident that thanks to this new initiative, Plug and Play Maritime, we will be able to accelerate our joined ambitions,” Marinower said.
Maritime innovation-as-a-service
Initial technology areas for scouting will include clean fuels and energy, big data and Internet of Things, future logistics, efficient shipping, autonomous vessels, sensors, and more. By providing innovation-as-a-service, this platform will also play a strategic role for the partners in pioneering a sustainable maritime industry of the future throughout Belgium and around the world.
The program will also offer participants access to business development, deal flows, workshops, weekly mentorship sessions, networking between partners, investment opportunities, and various monthly events. Plug and Play Maritime will be based near the Maritime Campus Antwerp, a co-working space for startups to utilize and scale their business.
“For the moment we have world class ports like the Port of Antwerp and a world class maritime industry in our country. To maintain our position, we need to look and think ahead,” said CME CEO Alexander Saverys, CEO of CMB. “Joining forces with partners creates scale in know-how and competencies resulting in R&D and innovation. This will help us to stay on top of new evolutions in the industry. Plug and Play, together with our Maritime Campus Antwerp, will help us to support our ambitions.”
Plug and Play Maritime will be built around a 12-week open innovation program, run twice a year. Each program will welcome 20 or more selected international startups that are addressing the specific technological needs of the founding partners. The startups and business units of the partners will work together on pilots and proofs of concept, leading to production-ready implementation.
“Innovation can play a key role in making the future and prosperity of the port of Antwerp sustainable,” said Annick De Ridder, Vice Mayor of the Port of Antwerp. “The ecosystem represented by the Antwerp port platform is an ideal testbed for technology on a large scale. With Plug and Play Maritime we can live up to this ambition and play a pioneering role as a port of the future. In this way we seek to be a source of inspiration and to set an example for other ports.”
“The Plug and Play platform will enable us to leverage our R&D capabilities and set up structural collaborations with start-ups and the wider ecosystem to drive mutual growth and benefits. We must invest in new technologies to further digitalize our Industry but also to make shipping cleaner and more efficient,” said Euronav CEO Hugo De Stoop. “This is at the heart of our sustainability program to ensure our future relevance and competitiveness. Engaging in innovative ecosystems such as that of Plug and Play, together with the founding partners, is critical to achieve our long-term ambitions.”
A launch event is planned for June 2021.
