Inmarsat takes decarbonising founding role

(Posted on 31/03/20)

Inmarsat, the world leader in global mobile satellite communications, is a founding member of Asia’s first ‘Decarbonising Shipping’ initiative to harness the power of start-ups to meet UN targets on greenhouse gas emissions, which launched earlier this month.

The regional initiative, based in Singapore, is part of the Trade & Transport Impact (TTI) programme from venture development firm Rainmaking to bring startups together with backers with maritime experience and expertise. Inmarsat joined the first two cycles of TTI, held in Europe in 2019, which scouted 1,200+ start-ups and led to 24 collaboration projects.

Backed by the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore, the new initiative is expected to identify 1,000+ projects offering models to tackle decarbonisation, with selected start-ups to be matched with maritime industry leaders willing to build collaborative pilot projects. Alongside Inmarsat, other confirmed partners include Cargill, DNV GL, Hafnia, MC Shipping Inc., Vale and Wilhelmsen

“This is a list of organisations whose significance for the maritime industry speaks for itself,” says Ronald Spithout, President, Inmarsat Maritime. “Shipping and its customers are demanding solutions and technology to address the decarbonisation targets set by regulators and this is where startups and market disruptors come in.

The International Maritime Organization is targeting a 50% cut of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships by 2050, and average carbon intensity (CO2 per tonne-mile) reductions of 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050 compared to 2008 figures

Inmarsat’s recent research report ‘Trade 2.0: How Startups are driving the next generation of maritime trade’, predicted the value of Ship Technology (ShipTech) rising from $106bn to US$278bn by 2030 driven in part by innovators and disruptors providing solutions that will help monitor and cut emissions.

“Despite the hard targets and willingness to invest, nobody actually knows how to meet the challenges,” adds Inmarsat’s Spithout. “TTI in Europe in 2019 showed how effectively this programme identifies start-ups that can make a difference and joins them up with the maritime leaders that make things happen. This is an initiative focused on action, rather than words.

Michael Pomerleau, Partner and Investor at Rainmaking, comments: “In tackling the decarbonisation agenda, we will bring together disruptive start-ups and entrepreneurs with the scale, capability and reach of global industry giants, in order to create game-changing collaborations. Through these partnerships, we aim to test and validate thousands of solutions with exponential impact and scale them on within an extremely short horizon during the programme.”

In the last year, Inmarsat has launched its own IoT platform – Fleet Data - and its own dedicated bandwidth service – Fleet Connect - and has continued to develop its Certified Application Provider (CAP) programme which now has over 20 certified providers including ABB, NAPA, Hyundai Global services and Nautilus Labs.