“The degree of venture capital investment in the maritime sector has grown from almost zero a few years ago to reach $300 million in 2018. 2019 saw a further increase”, says David Smith, UK shipping co-leader in the PwC blog post.
As seen on the graph below, the 2019 increase in maritime software investment has reached and even passed the $1 billion mark.
Image source: pwc.blogs.com
This growth in investment reflects the fact that many of the push barriers to technology adoption have declined in importance. For example, low visibility of the maritime sector among venture capital investors has been outplayed by the raised interest towards the profile of the sector as a destination for technology investment. At the same time, vessel connectivity is improving rapidly, and it becomes one of the priorities for the shipping companies to keep up with the digitalisation.
Wärtsilä Fleet Operations Solution smooths away the transformation period by utilising something that most of the industry members have already at hand – ECDIS, and further connecting it. Without applying the highlighted benefits of connectivity and convergence, which increasignly bring competitive advantages, it’ll soon become almost impossible to keep up with the pace of the fast-changing, technology adopting industry.
