OceanScore has brought onboard a group of high-profile investors to fund development of new data-driven tools intended to assist shipping players in navigating regulatory complexity towards compliance.

The Hamburg-based technology developer and data provider for the maritime industry, launched in 2020, has built a digital platform that monitors the performance of the entire global fleet of 109,000 commercial vessels, enabling diverse industry stakeholders to benchmark ship operations against sustainability goals.

The AI-powered platform uses proprietary engineering algorithms and advanced regression models to analyse data from multiple sources, comprehensively tracking emissions (CO2, SOx, NOx and PM) as well as reporting a further 50 ESG scores around vessel safety and reliability, environmental performance and adherence to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This data provides a sound basis for decision-making for ship managers, cargo owners, ports, banks, investors, insurers, P&I clubs and other stakeholders. The platform is also designed to facilitate collaboration and data-sharing among industry players, providing a single source of verified data visible to all parties for tracking vessel and ship managers’ sustainability.

Investor line-up

OceanScore has now attracted an impressive line-up of investors after completing an oversubscribed seed funding round, with global container shipping giant MSC as well as P. Döhle, the Schoeller family (shareholders in Columbia Shipmanagement and Scope Ratings), TecPier and Israel’s theDOCK committing capital for expansion of the platform.

“We are delighted with the level of investment interest in OceanScore after detailed scrutiny by these highly reputable investors. Their investments represent a firm vindication of our potential and the quality of our data, solutions and capabilities, while also providing a strong foundation for further growth,” said OceanScore’s co-Managing Director Albrecht Grell.

Expanding ESG reporting requirements and new environmental regulations, such as the implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for shipping from 2024, have resulted in greater complexity for the industry, according to co-Managing Director Ralf Garrn.

“Our team combines decades in shipping with deep engineering and data science competence. We bring that to bear when building solutions to support shipping in its transition to net-zero,” he said.

Based on its unique pool of sustainability data, OceanScore has developed a solution to help shipping manage the upcoming challenges surrounding the EU ETS that is quickly gaining traction with European shipping customers and will be expanded based on evolving market requirements.

‘Visibility on ship performance’

Explaining the rationale for their investment, MSC’s Group President Diego Aponte said: “In addition to our massive investment in lower-carbon technologies and fuels, MSC continues to focus on improving energy efficiency. We have decided to leverage OceanScore to provide better visibility on the environmental and broader sustainability performance of ships in our fleet. We will encourage our customers, charter tonnage providers and other stakeholders to join MSC in this initiative.”

New investor theDOCK’s Nir Gartzman said: “OceanScore’s analyses are predicated on advanced data science and deep engineering expertise to provide effective decision-support tools to optimise sustainable fleet management. This gives us a high level of confidence in its solution.”

Collaboration and validation

OceanScore has taken a collaborative approach by working with top maritime companies to develop its digital tools as well as gain access to granular emissions data for model calibration.

Besides generating superior quality sustainability data, OceanScore is working with Scope Ratings, Europe’s leading ratings agency, to provide independent validation of its scores – part of the platform’s transparency policy.

Grell said: “Our investors provide us with further, unparalleled collaboration opportunities and we are delighted at the potential these offer to further expand our innovative platform.”