MPA to provide $50,000 seed funding for startups

190 startups will participate in the first Smart Port Challenge.

The Maritime Port Authority of Singapore launched the first Smart Port Challenge 2017 and welcomed nearly 190 startups as part of MPA’s wider effort to develop innovation.

Building upon the last two Smart Port Hackathons driven by MPA in 2014 and 2015, SPC 2017 was conceived to encourage further collaboration between organisations and start-ups to push digital transformation in the maritime industry. The six-month programme will take a new approach with the involvement of industry partners providing funding and test-bedding opportunities in partnership with the VC community.

The advent of technologies such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT), data analytics and machine learning have created smarter ships while major players in the shipping industry are also developing blockchain solutions to digitise, manage, and track shipping transactions which could potentially save the industry up to billions of dollars. However, these do not come without challenges, such as asset utilisation, manpower training, and ways to effectively manage processes so new technology infrastructure can become part of the operational strategy.

SPC 2017 aims to identify and discuss these challenges and help translate these ideas into commercial solutions. Industry partners or co-creators will also identify mentors for participants. SPC 2017 will have two categories of participants, comprising start-ups and non-start-ups.

MPA and PSA unboXed will provide seed funding support of up to $50,000 for each selected start-up to develop full prototypes with the possibility of implementation for business operations. Start-ups can also look forward to seed funding support from other VCs while shortlisted non start-ups will be eligible for MPA’s Maritime Innovation and Technology (MINT) funding for test-bedding or product development.