Global Shipping Company, Iino Lines, Partners with Plug and Play to Drive Innovation in the Maritime Sector

ANTWERP, BELGIUM, April 28, 2022 - Japan’s leading shipping company IINO Lines is embarking on a partnership with Plug and Play, the world's largest corporate innovation platform with headquarters in Silicon Valley, to drive innovation in the maritime sector and beyond. The collaboration will focus on the latest trends and includes clean fuels and energy, digitalization and big data, smart shipping, crew and safety, and more.

“With multiple and ongoing changes such as digitalization, climate change, new working style and so on in the global market, the business environment of the shipping industry has been moving for new era dramatically. And it will not stop but is likely only to accelerate faster. To cope with the changes with more quality service to our customers, we value "collaboration" with startups with cutting-edge technologies and to diversify our quality services. In the maritime industry, innovation particularly driven by digitalization has just started. We are excited to board Plug and Play's ecosystem to experience the chemistry and witness the achievement as a product of collaborations with Plug and Play's partners," commented Ryuichi Osonoe, Director / Managing Executive Officer of IINO Lines.

“We are very proud and honored to welcome an important strategic partner on board at our Plug and Play Maritime program. IINO Lines brings in a lot of expertise and know-how within the industry and the new partnership offers IINO Lines the opportunity to create collaborations with a wide network of global technology companies. At the same time, it also emphasizes our ambitions to build a truly global platform with international reach,” shares David Neef and Sallar Faridi, both Co-Founders of the Plug and Play Maritime program.

Plug and Play identifies startup and scaleup ventures from around the world that have innovative technologies and business models, with a particular focus on developments in the maritime sector. It connects them with its corporate partners to facilitate collaboration and accelerate the development of products, services, and ways of working that could advance the industry. Therefore, and as an important success factor of this collaboration, Plug and Play will tap into its international network of over 40,000 startups in order to facilitate meaningful engagements. Beyond that Plug and Play will scout for solutions coming from different sectors which might be applicable in the maritime sector.

The partnership allows IINO Lines to receive innovative impulses from Plug and Play’s global presence by accessing its Silicon Valley headquarters as well as the presence in Antwerp, Belgium, and Tokyo, Japan. An important side effect will be to spread an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset across many of the business lines of the company.

By using the open innovation principles, IINO Lines aims to tackle current challenges in the maritime sector and make the maritime and shipping industry smarter, safer, and more sustainable. By working with startups, they will be able to implement solutions quicker in order to provide quality services to their customers.

For more information on how to get involved, please visit: www.pnptc.com/maritime

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we're present in 40+ locations across 5 continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we've invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit

https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

About IINO Lines

IINO Lines is a global shipping company headquartered in Tokyo with 5 regional offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, London and Houston. During its 123 years history since the establishment in 1899, IINO has been developing shipping services as owner and operator specialized in carrying natural energy resources and its related products such as crude oil, LNG, LPG, petrochemical and bulk cargoes. Besides shipping service, IINO also operates office leasing service in Tokyo and London. At the end of March 2022, IINO owns and/or operates total 92 vessels including 6 VLGCs, 26 small gas carriers, 36 chemical tankers, 18 dry bulk carriers, 1 LNG, 5 VLCC, and fully and/or partially owns 6 office buildings in Tokyo and 1 office building in London. For more information, visit our Website at https://www.iino.co.jp/kaiun/english/

Plug and Play Contact

david@pnptc.com

+49 1606808115