Plug and Play Maritime Fostering Partnerships to Accelerate Maritime Innovation
ANTWERP, BELGIUM, May, 2, 2023 - In this year’s annual EXPO on June 13th at Waagnatie Antwerpen, Plug and Play Maritime is coming with a clear statement: The maritime challenges are too large to solve by individual organisations. In order to create effective and sustainable impact, maritime actors need to create a union of the willing and innovate together. Hence, the main theme of the day will be Charting New Waters:Innovating through collaborative partnerships in the maritime industry.
At the EXPO, Plug and Play Maritime, together with its partners CMB, DXC Technology, Euronav, Port of Antwerp-Bruges, the City of Antwerp, IINO Lines and DEME celebrate a year of close collaboration. Together with these partners, Plug and Play is inviting 400+ international maritime stakeholders and will showcase the innovation projects they have ran together, as well as invite top level maritime actors for keynote speeches and panel discussions about the importance of collaboration in maritime innovation. Their mission is to create a sense of urgency in the industry to start innovating together, and join our union of the willing.
An important element of the EXPO will be the 9 innovative startups that collaborated with our partners and were further supported in Plug and Play’s acceleration program. They are as follows: 13 Mari (USA), Amogy (USA), Everimpact (FR), Guaranteed (BE), Optioryx (BE), Pathway (FR), Sanchip (IT), Signol (UK), and Ventory (BE). They will bring pilot presentations about the work they did with our founding partners and will be approachable in their booths. The startups were carefully selected from Plug and Play’s network of more than 50,000 preselected startups, to fit the exact technological and business needs of the partners.
“EXPO day is where we celebrate strong partnerships. On the one hand, it’s about alliances that resulted in impactful innovation throughout the year. On the other hand, we also celebrate the fruitful partnerships that are yet to come. We hope to inspire our international audience with top level presentations, panel discussions and more. Furthermore, we encourage our audience to share their insights and ideas with each other to open the door of these future collaborations,” says Lando Szücs, Partner Success & Innovation Manager at Plug and Play Maritime.
Plug and Play Maritime is an Antwerp-based innovation accelerator aimed at stimulating innovation for a greener, smarter, and safer maritime industry via corporate-to-startup collaborations. Since March 2021, partners CMB, DXC Technology, Euronav, Port of Antwerp-Bruges, and The City of Antwerp have collaborated with Plug and Play Tech Center, the Silicon Valley-based innovation platform. They bring new technologies and entrepreneurs to the region and accelerates technological and business development. To reach this goal, the innovation hub connects and matches its partners with the world’s most innovative startups. During this year, they have seen the challenges our partners address center around the topics of hydrogen technology and infrastructure, digital twin of shipping, smart port infrastructure, supply chain and logistics, and many more.
The Plug and Play Maritime platform creates value for partners in both private and public sectors. Alexander Saverys, CEO of CMB, comments: “Plug and Play brings companies and people together to solve real-world problems with real-world solutions. Established companies engage with startups and scale-ups and work together on concrete projects. The essential skill of collaboration is the bedrock of the maritime adventure since 4000 years, but had been forgotten during the past decades. Thanks to Plug and Play, all hands are on the same deck to explore new horizons!”.
“The maritime industry has always identified itself with innovation. As we house one of Europe’s most important ports, it is no surprise that The City of Antwerp is a key supporter of the EXPO by Plug & Play Maritime. By joining this union of the willing we want to take part in boosting maritime innovation. We are convinced that many new exciting technologies and collaborations will sprout out of EXPO thanks to the exchange of ideas that will take place”, says Erica Caluwaerts, Vice Mayor of The City of Antwerp (innovation and economy).
Join our union of the willing and help boost maritime innovation - Register for Plug and Play’s EXPO on June 13, 2023: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/plug-and-play-maritime-expo-day-batch23-tickets-533735115097?discount=EXPO23
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, Plug and Play is present in 50+ locations across 5 continents. Plug and Play offers corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. Plug and Play also organizes startup acceleration programs and have an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries. Plug and Play has 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 The City of Antwerp
The City of Antwerp is home to a world-class port and international trade opportunities. It’s also the cultural capital of Flanders and a strong creative sector with a long tradition in design. Antwerp is firmly committed to stimulating ecosystems by bringing together capital, companies, and knowledge institutions in the fields of digital innovation, sustainable chemistry, and creative industries. These powerful ecosystems develop innovations for traditional business clusters such as the port and the chemical industry, and by helping to achieve success in fields such as mobility, health, and safety. This solid foundation together with strong ambitions and open innovation culture make Antwerp the ideal starting point for innovative companies. For more information, visit www.businessinantwerp.eu.
Press Contact: Jeremy Stefens
Email: jeremy.stefens@antwerpen.be
Phone: +32 485 92 14 36
About CMB and CMB.TECH
CMB (Compagnie Maritime Belge) is a diversified shipping and cleantech group based in Antwerp, Belgium. CMB owns and operates 150 seagoing vessels in dry bulk (Bocimar), container transport (Delphis), chemical tankers (Bochem) & crew transfer vessels (Windcat). CMB is also active in cleantech (CMB.TECH) and real estate (MCA Facilities, Maritime Campus Antwerp). CMB has offices in Japan, Namibia, Singapore, China, Germany, UK and The Netherlands. www.cmb.be
CMB.TECH is a cleantech company that builds, owns, operates & designs large marine and industrial applications that run on hydrogen and ammonia. CMB.TECH also offers hydrogen and ammonia fuel to its customers, either through own production or by sourcing it from third party producers. www.cmb.tech
Press Contact: Katrien Hennin
Email: katrien.hennin@cmb.be
Phone: +32 499 39 34 70
About DXC Technology
DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) helps global companies run their mission-critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private, and hybrid clouds. With decades of driving innovation, some of the world’s largest companies trust DXC to deploy an enterprise technology stack to deliver new levels of performance, competitiveness, and customer experiences. To learn more about the DXC story and its focus on people, customers, and operational execution visit www.dxc.com/us/en
About Euronav
Euronav is an independent tanker company engaged in the ocean transportation and storage of crude oil. The company is headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, and has offices throughout Europe and Asia. Euronav is listed on Euronext Brussels and on the NYSE under the symbol EURN. Euronav employs its fleet both on the spot and period market. VLCCs on the spot market are traded in the Tankers International pool of which Euronav is one of the major partners. Euronav’s owned and operated fleet consists of 1 V-Plus vessel, 41 VLCCs (with further one under construction), 21 Suezmaxes (with a further five under construction) and 2 FSO vessels.
Press Contact: Brian Gallagher
Email: IR@euronav.com
Phone: +44 20 78 70 04 36
About MCA
MCA links business, technology, and knowledge to strengthen and develop the maritime sector. Both MCA Community and MCA LABS contribute to this. MCA as a community is broad and focuses on joining forces between the various actors in the broad maritime sector at the European level. MCA LABS provides a physical meeting place where companies ranging from large corporate companies to the smallest startups, and educational and research institutions can cooperate and innovate. To learn more, visit www.mca.be
Press Contact: Katrien Hennin
Email: katrien.hennin@cmb.be
Phone: +32 499 39 34 70
About Port of Antwerp-Bruges
With an overall throughput of 289m tons per year, Port of Antwerp-Bruges is a critical hub in worldwide trade and industry. The port is a crucial link for the handling of containers, breakbulk, and for the throughput of vehicles. Port of Antwerp-Bruges is home to 1,400 companies and accommodates the largest integrated chemical cluster in Europe. The port provides, directly and indirectly, a total of around 164,000 jobs and generates an added value of €21bn. For more information, visit https://www.portofantwerpbruges.com/en.
Press Contact: Lennart Verstappen
Email: Lennart.Verstappen@portofantwerpbruges.com
Phone: +32 473 920 414