Smart Ship Hub , the fast-growing maritime digital platform for ship owners, operators, charterers and insurers, has received significant strategic investment from one of Japan’s largest maritime equipment manufacturers.

Nakakita Seisakusho, the Japanese market leader in valves and high quality fluid control devices, is known for its innovative butterfly valves and various other fluid control systems. True to its corporate motto of ‘Frontier Spirits’, Nakakita is globally recognised for its innovation, quality and customer value.

Headquartered in Singapore, SSH supports vessels from across 50+ ports through its Singapore, India and Japan offices.

Welcoming the investment from Nakikita, Joy Basu, CEO of Smart Ship Hub, said: “Japan is an important market for us and we have learnt a lot from Japanese processes and quality frameworks over a long period of time. Having invested significantly in this market already, a long-term partnership such as this is very positive for the Japanese maritime ecosystem. We are extremely well positioned to understand the specific needs of the Japanese owners, operators and charterers and the SSH digital platform has the necessary flexibilities to customise as per specific requirements.

“Nakakita’s market leadership and deep domain experience together with the technology engineering capabilities of SSH together with continuous support, ensures high grade Dx (digital transformation) capabilities for ship owners, operators and charterers. As we progress towards our series A fund raise, Nakakita’s strategic investment and long-term commitment paves the way for SSH to scale up rapidly and attract tier 1 investors,” he added.

Teruhis Miyata, President of Nakakita Seisakusho, said Nakakita continues to invest in technology, best practices and in disruptive areas that will create lasting value for its customers.

“Smart Ship Hub is one of the fastest growing maritime digital platform globally and we have been assessing their growth for some time. Their global presence, deep technology competences, top tier client base coupled with what is a robust digital platform, is just the right combination that appealed to Nakakita,” he said.

“Keeping with the tradition of customer first and value-based outcome, we decided to combine skills from both sides to ensure an easy and smooth digital transformation process. By investing in SSH, we are disrupting the legacy processes, bringing in efficient workflows for maritime companies and setting new standards in digitally powered fleet management. With the current emphasis on technology-managed processes and remote management of the fleet, Japanese maritime companies will be able to drive in bottom line savings while enhancing efficiencies with SSH’s ‘All in One’ platform experience that will be further curated by Nakakita,” he added.

SSH (with Nakakita’s help) is offering multiple use cases for Japanese maritime ecosystem including  Vessel Performance, Voyage Performance, Weather Routing, Machinery Condition and Health Monitoring, Predictive Diagnostics, Decarbonisation Measures, Technical Performance Advisory and a dedicated Performance Centre for Japanese customers. With significant market recognition of Nakakita , SSH will now have extended value proposition for existing Nakakita customers as well as new customers who are looking at Process Optimisation, Cost Savings, Compliance Management as well as efficiencies.

Maritime companies globally are moving from traditionally managed legacy processes to technology augmented experiences. High frequency sensor data together with legacy process data and vessel manuals and dry dock and maintenance updates, form the foundation for rich data driven intelligence. SSH’s proprietary IOT gateway has the ability to fetch data from any kind of machinery and equipment such as main engine, diesel generators, flow meters, pumps, scrubbers, boilers, Bridge and Navigation systems, cargo etc, and create a rich source of high quality data that is at the foundation of AI-driven ship management practices.

By doing so, it frees up resources, optimises vessel utilisation, enhances efficiencies and ensures compliance while reporting significant cost savings.

“With Nakakita as SSH’s shareholder, we will bring in the agility and flexibility of a digital platform while maintaining the same quality and support that Nakakita has been known for, for decades,” said Mr Miyata, President of Nakakita.

SSH and Nakakita’s joint GTM  (go to market) in Japan has already started bearing results with a number of owners beginning their journey with SSH. The ‘soon-to-start’ Japan-focused Performance Centre will ensure Level 0, Level 1 escalations for fleet Management. This will allow superintendents, fleet managers, commercial operators and senior management to focus on more important business metrics while SSH Nakakita takes care of complete fleet performance management, decarbonisation, voyage performance, weather routing, predictive maintenance and compliance.