Wärtsilä Voyage has completed an investment in Marindows, a Japanese company delivering an open digital platform for Japan’s marine industry.
Both Marindows and Wärtsilä Voyage share a common vision of digitalisation as a means to accelerating decarbonisation and efficiency in the global marine industry, making them a good fit for collaboration. The move will serve to strengthen Wärtsilä Voyage’s commitment to the Japanese market.
Together, Marindows and Wärtsilä Voyage will be creating value for the Japanese market through their collaboration, which will include the aeras of vessel optimisation and autonomy. Safer, greener and more efficient operations are some of the benefits both companies believe they can bring to the market by reinforcing synergies and leveraging a digital ecosystem of applications that run on board and ashore.
Yasumasa Suetsugu, President, Marindows, said: “It’s a great pleasure to have Wärtsilä Voyage as the first overseas partner collaborating with Marindows and participating in our project. Marindows also welcomes Wärtsilä’s strong commitment to the Japanese market, which is one of the largest markets of domestic ocean transport in the world. However, this market has faced complex challenges such as a shortage of manpower and faced some obstacles in supporting sustainable shipping. We provide the solutions to overcome these challenges through digital transformation (DX) and we’re very excited to work together with Wärtsilä Voyage to add new value. Starting with DX, Marindow believes both companies can do more to create a bright maritime future and contribute to a sustainable world.”
Founded in March 2021, Marindows focuses on the development of a marine digital platform, linking edge computing onboard ships with cloud services and shore-based applications to provide a range of maritime specific services to both seafarers and vessel operators. Its disruptive approach to digitalisation fits with Wärtsilä Voyage’s digital portfolio, which includes technology solutions to reduce carbon emissions and enhance autonomous shipping. Together, this collaboration is expected to create value and help the Japanese market decarbonise and move towards autonomy.
Sean Fernback, President, Wärtsilä Voyage and EVP Wärtsilä, said: “We are incredibly excited by the opportunity that this collaboration with Marindows brings. We are deeply committed to the Japanese market, and this is an important step towards establishing and growing our presence there. We can accelerate new value creation and technology adoption by supporting Marindows with our advanced platform and suite of technologies. At Wärtsilä Voyage, we’re proud of our solid digital portfolio which supports the acceleration of maritime digitalisation, cascading the positive effect on the whole shipping industry, the planet and the people.”
