Maersk’s startup accelerator OceanPro has announced a successful conclusion of its second cohort of startups showcasing artificial intelligence and machine learning-led solutions developed over the last 120 days.
Four startups — Stratforge, Tripz, Linkstreet, and Shipmnts.com — have been presented at the graduation ceremony of the second cohort.
The startups co-developed solutions focused on simplifying the customer payment process, optimizing the truck/ container moves, transforming the enterprise learning to make it more customized, effective and engaging, and digitizing the document assessment process.
The company also unveiled startups that will be part of the third cohort as a continuation of Maersk’s efforts “to drive industry-wide digital transformation propelled by startup-led innovations in India.” The new cohort comprises four startups — Entropik Tech, Senseforth, Soroco and Ocean Frogs.
As informed, the third cohort will focus on e-commerce platforms of Maersk, optimizing the brand experience and customer journey.
OceanPro successfully launched its first set of seven startups last year that saw approximately 50% conversion to a production scale solution provider.
One of the solutions developed from the initial cohorts is now being used in inland tracking by three countries and is even scheduled for a wider global rollout. Another virtual reality (VR) solution developed also reached 12,000+ employees giving them the immersive learning experience of a Triple E vessel, one of the largest classes of containerships in the world.
“I am excited to see startups in the OceanPro cohort work on solving problems for our customers and for our teams around the world, at scale. One of the imperatives for OceanPro is to offer meaningful opportunities for the startups to accelerate their product development through direct and regular feedback from customers and end-users, and I am glad that we can live up to that promise,” Navneet Kapoor, Maersk’s Chief Transformation Officer and Head of its Global Service Centres, commented.
“The benefits for Maersk are real as well and we are committed to further scaling up our partnership with the thriving start-up ecosystem in India and other parts of the world,” he added.
Reflecting on the year-long journey with two graduating cohorts and the launch of the third cohort, Sriram Narayanasami, The OceanPro Accelerator Program Sponsor and Global Commercial Process Head at Maersk, said:
“At Maersk, … we continue to foster innovation to fuel our transformation. Our OceanPro program supports this journey by leveraging the start-up expertise in building digital solutions that improve ease of doing business for our customers. We thank our start-ups for partnering in solving some important problems in our industry and we continue to be impressed by the depth of expertise that the start-ups bring with them.”
Source: http://worldmaritimenews.com