x1025 | Issue #16
More than 300 people registered for the SF Maritime Tech Summit. Limited space meant we could welcome nearly 110 attendees in person, while more than 50 joined the livestream on YouTube. Several attendees later told us it was one of the best events they attended during SF Tech Week.

Thank you to everyone who joined us, contributed to the conversations, and helped bring the maritime and technology communities closer together. A special thank-you to Humanmade for hosting us and to Propeller VC for sponsoring the food and beverages.

Inside the Summit

• Avikalp Gupta sat down with Rodrigo Prudencio, Managing Partner at Propeller VC, for a fireside chat on investing at the ocean’s edge. They discussed opportunities across ocean industries, carbon, and organics; what makes an ocean startup venture-backable; and how the Bay Area can become a stronger maritime technology hub.

• I moderated an operator-focused panel with Roy Mathur of Martinez Refinery and John Holmes of STAX Engineering. Their conversation examined how operators evaluate new technologies, what it takes to deploy them safely in active maritime environments, and how founders can build solutions that address real operational needs.

• The summit concluded with founder spotlights and a networking session. Each founder had one minute to introduce their company, the problem they were addressing, and what they were building.

We closed the event with a call to action: the maritime industry needs more collaboration among operators, founders, investors, engineers, and policymakers. x1025 intends to keep creating those connections and helping practical maritime technologies move from ideas to real-world adoption.

We will share highlights from each session over the coming weeks. For now, here are some of the startups that took the stage:

• Avionova — Vertigo solutions

• Samudra Oceans — Physical AI for nearshore platforms

• Diden Robotics — Robotics for real-world solutions

• ResQ Vision — The intelligence behind cameras

• Sidonia — Software for maritime operations and coordination

• Sonibel Instruments — Real-time weld-quality control

• Zuru Automation — Digital infrastructure for maritime maintenance

• Vocadian — Voice-first human-state intelligence

• Submerse — Underwater data centers

• Clippership — Autonomous vessels for AI compute

• IMPACT — Air defense as a service

• Philyron — Predictive maintenance powered by retrofit sensors

• Marine Mind — AI-powered solutions for charter-party agreements

Several other founders also introduced their work during the open spotlight session.

The response in San Francisco reinforced what we saw earlier this year in Boston: there is a growing community ready to build the future of maritime technology. Our job now is to keep that momentum going.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Physical AI Enters Shipyards

Fincantieri is expanding its BOOST² program to deploy advanced robotics, Physical AI, digital twins, additive manufacturing, and automated equipment across its shipyards, with a €100 million investment.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Robosys’ VOYAGER AI Takes On 55 Maritime Traffic Scenarios 

The assessment examined how the system handles collision avoidance and complies with international navigation rules, providing shipowners and managers with technical evidence to assess autonomous navigation systems.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #15
Last week, we were at MIT to meet Professor Mike Benjamin, who has spent more than two decades building and teaching maritime autonomy. Mike’s research work focuses on algorithms and software for autonomous marine vehicles.

Our conversation moved between autonomous navigation, simulation, COLREGS, open-source software, and the role machine learning should play onboard a vessel. But Mike was equally interested in the business questions: where autonomy creates real value, why large ships may continue to carry crews, and how a startup avoids being eaten by a giant like Hyundai.

His central message was encouraging: maritime autonomy is very close. The technology works remarkably well, but a few difficult problems—and some important commercial questions—remain.

Three things stood out:

1. Open source is leading autonomous navigation.
   MOOS-IvP is used by maritime autonomy companies around the world. Mike’s most interesting point: the most valuable contribution is often not more code, but a detailed bug report or an unusual test case that makes the entire system better.

2. Fast simulation beats perfect simulation.
   The MIT team runs simulations at 30–100 times real time, using the same autonomy code that runs on physical boats. Mike’s view was refreshingly practical: a fast, low-fidelity simulator is often more useful than a high-fidelity model that runs too slowly.

3. Autonomy can make the uneconomical possible.
   Mike pointed to small islands in Greece and elsewhere that receive cargo only when it can hitch a ride on a tourist boat. Autonomous vessels could serve routes that are too small, remote, or uneconomical for today’s shipping model.

   It left us thinking less about what autonomy might replace—and more about what it could make possible.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

A 1.2-Metre Autonomous Boat Crosses the Atlantic Alone

Covered a total of 2,926 nautical miles (5,400km) over 127 days - feeding on power from solar panels and the sail.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Japan Demonstrates a Hydrogen-Powered Tanker

Kikou Maru sailed 20 miles on a demonstration on its hydrogen-fueled 4-stroke high speed engine - a world-first event.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #14
Earlier this year, I dropped everything else I was working on to refocus entirely on the maritime industry. It didn't take long to realize my ambitions for this space were too big to chase alone. I needed to find the other people building here and get in the room with them.

I started one conversation at a time. Then the Boston Maritime Tech Summit gave me a way to scale that outreach fast.

Now, we're bringing the same energy to San Francisco.

This time, it's part of a16z's SF Tech Week 2026. The official announcement and calendar go live this Tuesday, 9/8 — but as a subscriber, you get the news first. The event page is live on Partiful, so grab your ticket now before the rest of San Francisco finds out.

Expect strong content and a hand-picked room built for an outsized signal-to-noise ratio. The event is free to attend, and lunch will be provided.

This round, we're co-hosting with HumanMade — a hardware accelerator, makerspace, and workforce development hub based in SF. I toured their facility last month and walked away impressed: every tool you could want for prototyping, a great location in the city, and a genuinely strong builder community.

We're also looking for a few sponsors to help bring this to life — if that's you or someone you know, reach out (h6239@alum.mit.edu).

We'd love to see you there. RSVP here.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

New Position Fixing Technology for Navigation Resilience

Höegh Autoliners to Equip Entire Fleet with New Navigation Resilience Technology. Instead of relying on medium-earth-orbit GNSS systems (such as GPS), they use low-earth-orbit Iridium satellites, measuring doppler shift of their signals for position fixing. The technology is called Satellite Time and Location (STL). No more spoofing. No more jamming. Sail safe, merchant fleet!

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Unmanned Navigation Bridge, Coming Soon On a VLOC

ABS, Polaris Shipping, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and autonomous navigation solutions provider AVIKUS have signed a four-party Concept Study Agreement for the implementation of a Conditional Unmanned Bridge.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #13
Two weeks ago in Norway, the Otter Test was the talk of the town. A part of the Njord Challenge, the test involves manually driven boats actively trying to disrupt autonomous vessels, as they navigate through a series of challenges. The IIT Madras team from India came out on top, by a huge margin. Naturally, we had to see the lab and the team behind it.

Avikalp was at IIT Madras's Marine Autonomous Vessels lab this week.

We've been in touch with them for a few months now — deep conversations on autonomous cargo ship design and where this technology is actually headed. But the in-person visit was enlightening in many different ways.

Three things that stood out:

• A physics engine built entirely in-house. Neither public, nor off-the-shelf — built by Professor Abhilash himself, with every hardware test feeding data back to sharpen it further.

• A full-spectrum testing pipeline. Two wave basins, a wave generator, an overhead crane, and a concrete ramp built just to launch boats into the campus lake. Simulation, then waves, then open water — all on one campus.

• Research and scrappiness, layered together. Electrical engineers hand-designing circuit boards, a mechanical engineer sketching CAD structures, a robotics engineer writing the intelligence layer, all tinkering side by side on every part of the autonomy stack at once.

Professor Abhilash was candid: pervasive autonomous vessels aren't happening in the next decade. But he appreciated the approach of breaking it down into chunks and finding a viable business use case for every technical milestone.

We are looking forward to growing a partnership and take the industry forward!

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Japan Marine United installs supervised autonomous navigation on a working cargo ship

The system includes steering, speed-control, and collision-avoidance systems.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Eastern Pacific Shipping expands Orca AI's computer-vision navigation fleetwide

A five-vessel pilot covering 130,000+ nautical miles cut close-encounter events by 48%, and the company is now scaling the system to dozens more vessels.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #12
For years, switching off your AIS was an easy trick. A few hours of anonymity, no questions asked. I've done it myself more times than I'll admit here — stories for another time.

That trick doesn't work anymore.

AIS combined with LEO satellite tracking already turned vessel movement into public data — Kepler / MarineTraffic became industry standards. But the next wave goes further. Combine AIS with satellite imagery and a dozen other data sources, and suddenly every revolution of the propeller, every rudder movement, tells a story. Not just where a ship is — but a living profile of the vessel and the people running it.

I got early access to one platform doing exactly this: maritimeiq.ai, built by the team at Spectronn. It tracks 90,000+ vessels and 20,000+ ports, live, 24/7. It builds a real-time profile for every vessel, layered with AI-generated insights. I've spent enough time with this team recently to say - this isn't hype.

There's a lot of data out there right now, and honestly, I think we've barely scratched the use cases. Compliance, chartering, due diligence, insurance — this is just the beginning.

Good news: it's free to explore for the next 30 days. Go try it. Tell me what you think. And if you want to go deeper, reach out to the founder, Mouli, directly.

P.S. — Not a paid post. I'm genuinely impressed by what they've built.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Bulk Carrier Sinks in Bay of Bengal, Search Continues for 22 Crew

MV Ocean Winner; it was carrying 1,700 tonnes of iron ore fines from Paradip to Singapore. The Indian Coast Guard's MRCC diverted the tanker MT Aisopos, which recovered two survivors from life rafts, while three Coast Guard ships continue searching for the remaining 22 crew members, most of them of Chinese nationality. The cause of the sinking has not been determined; this is a developing story at the time of publication.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Quantum Clocks Tried Out to Navigate Without GPS

The trial paired cold-atom "AQlock" clocks with Saab's Giraffe 1X radar system to maintain accurate positioning and timing without relying on GPS — even while simulating jamming and spoofing conditions. Sounds exciting!

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #11
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Angeliki Frangou's Columbia speech — her call to engineers and builders to join maritime as the era of slow change ends. But calling people in isn't enough. Someone has to actually get them excited.

I've been doing that work for a while now — the Maritime Tech Summit in Boston, bringing Avikalp to Greece for Posidonia. This week, I did it again: took a group of San Francisco tech folks aboard an aframax oil tanker docked at a Bay Area refinery. 750 feet long. 140 feet wide. A floating structure most people never think about, let alone step on.

On this trip, I was accompanied by technologists exploring opportunities in the maritime industry, and some of my advisors. We observed the current state and brainstormed the opportunities.

The results of this trip will show up later. But one moment already made it worth it. One visitor, standing next to the ship's engine, said: "I could have never imagined a two-stroke engine of the size of an apartment building without seeing it myself."

That's the whole point. You can't pitch someone into caring about an industry. You put them on the ship.

Huge thanks to the captain and crew for their hospitality. Fair winds and calm seas on your next voyage — we'll keep working on the tech side.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Korea Breaks Ground on Gwangyang — the World's First "Physical AI" Port

It will be a four-berth terminal, designed to handle 1.36 million TEU annually. Serving as the core project of the national "Physical AI Port Strategy", the facility aims to use deep learning and real-time sensor data to autonomously control physical cargo handling by 2029.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

ShipIn Systems Raises $52M as Its AI Vessel-Monitoring Platform Hits 1,300 Ships

Exciting news for the Boston maritime tech ecosystem. Silicon Valley based CVC Tokio Marine Future Fund, and re-insurance giant Munich Re joined the cap table.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #10
The SHIPS for America Act was first introduced back in April 2025 — a bipartisan bill designed to rebuild the US-flag international fleet, strengthen American shipyards, and grow the maritime workforce . For over a year, it sat in committee. That changed on July 22, when the House folded a significant chunk of the bill into the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 8800), passing it 216–212.

Two amendments carried the weight: the Kelly Amendment, which brought in SHIPS for America's core provisions, and the Ezell Amendment, which went further than the original bill ever did.

Here's what the two amendments mean for the industry:

1. Government cargo now has nowhere to hide. 

   The Kelly Amendment raises the government cargo-preference requirement from 50% to 100% — every eligible government-impelled shipment must now move on a US-flagged vessel.

2. Private commercial cargo moving on international fleet gets impacted.

   For the first time, a preference-style requirement extends beyond government cargo into private commercial international trade — starting with containerized and roll-on/roll-off imports. It phases in gently, from 2% in year one up to 15% by year 22.

3. It goes to the senate next. 

   A formal conference is expected around September 2026 . Senator Todd Young says momentum is on their side, but Senate Democrats' opposition to the broader $1.14 trillion NDAA topline, tangled up with unrelated Iran-war politics, could be challenging.

To sum it up - more demand for American tonnage and crew while the supply remain uncertain.

One natural follow-up: how does this compare to the Jones Act. Different lane, often confused — maybe a story for next time.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

ZeroNorth Launches Propel — an Agentic AI Partner for Maritime Operations

Cargill, Ultrabulk, and CMB.TECH signed on as launch partners. It's one of the clearest signs yet that "agentic AI" — systems that act, not just analyze — is moving from pitch decks into live commercial shipping operations .

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

ABS and Samsung Heavy Industries Advance 50 MW and 200 MW Floating Data Center Designs

It builds on the wave of floating-data-center announcements this year (Optimal Transit's Kraaken, MOL's conversion concept) and signals the space is scaling toward serious utility-grade capacity rather than one-off pilots.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #09
When was the last time you saw the CEO of a maritime company deliver the commencement address at an Ivy League school? It doesn't happen often. But it happened this year.

Angeliki Frangou, a distinguished alumna of Columbia's mechanical engineering master's program, returned to campus as the keynote speaker for Columbia Engineering's Class Day 2026 . She is the CEO of Navios Maritime Partners, overseeing a diversified fleet of roughly 180 vessels moving dry bulk, containers, crude, and refined products across the world. In her speech, she articulated almost everything I've been saying and thinking about the future of this industry, delivered with the clarity only someone who has lived it could bring.

Three things from her address stood out to me most.

1. Connectivity Is Rewriting the Industry's Operating Model

Starlink and other low-orbit constellations have brought real-time data, crew communication, and remote monitoring to vessels at a pace the industry has never seen. She compared it to the bandwidth revolution that took us from emailing photos to streaming Netflix — the same leap is now happening at sea.

2. The Need of the Hour: Engineers

Frangou was explicit that she wasn't just giving a commencement speech. She called it a recruiting trip. Her message to the graduating engineers was direct: the maritime industry needs their talent to realize a transformation driven by AI, autonomy, and connectivity.

3. The Direction: America's Shipbuilding Renaissance

Perhaps her most pointed observation was aimed squarely at industrial policy. Over the last 30 years, Asia has become the undisputed center of global shipbuilding. But Frangou drew a direct parallel to World War II, when the US went from a standing start to the world's largest shipbuilder, producing 3,300 vessels in just a few years through radically new industrialized production methods. She sees the same potential today, powered by laser welding, advanced robotics, and automated production lines.

The era of slow change is over. And if Frangou is right, the biggest opportunity in this industry isn't in Rotterdam, Singapore, or Busan — it's right here in the US.

Still wondering what the six things before breakfast are about? Listen to the full speech here.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Kongsberg and BCIT Launch $76.5M Marine Innovation Simulation Centre in Canada

The centre will use Kongsberg's simulation technology to create synthetic testing environments for autonomy, cyber resilience, and low-emission ship operations, while directly addressing a critical shortage of certified mariners through expanded training capacity.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Saudi Arabia Leads New 14-Nation Maritime Defense Alliance to Secure Red Sea Trade Routes

The alliance was approved after representatives from 43 countries and the EU convened in Riyadh, with Saudi Arabia designated as the founding nation and permanent host of the alliance's headquarters, Joint Command, and Maritime Operations Center. Interestingly, Yemen is also a part of it.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #08
On July 1, the International Code of Safety for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships — the MASS Code — officially came into effect, marking the first time the shipping industry has had a global regulatory framework for remote-controlled and autonomous vessel operations. This is a historical moment. For an industry that has operated under rules written for fully-crewed ships, July 1, 2026 is the day autonomy formally entered the rulebook. I read the entire document — all 87 pages — word by word. Here are three takeaways that stood out to me beyond the obvious headline.

1. No Autonomous Ship Exists Without an ROC
The Code makes something explicit that's easy to overlook: there is no such thing as a truly independent autonomous ship. Every Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship, regardless of its degree of autonomy, must operate under a Remote Operations Centre (ROC), and every MASS is required to hold a valid ROC certificate . What this means in practice is that today's ship-management companies are tomorrow's ROCs.

2. Autonomy Earns No Special Treatment at Sea
The Code makes no exception for autonomous vessels when it comes to navigation and operations. A MASS must meet the same standards as a conventional ship — no lowered bar, no special right of way, no operational leniency because the decision-maker is a system rather than a person. This might be one of the first true rubber-meets-the-road test cases for physical AI: a domain where the technology truly gets graded against a professional mariner.

3. Human Sailors Aren't Going Anywhere
Perhaps the most reassuring finding: every MASS, even at full autonomy, must have a captain assigned — whether that captain sits in the ROC or, in lower degrees of autonomy, remains onboard. The old maritime tradition holds even here — a captain is still the last human to leave the ship, whether it's sinking or sailing itself. And critically, the same STCW training standards that apply to onboard crew and officers now apply to ROC operators. Maritime training institutes aren't being replaced by this code — they're being handed a new curriculum.

Honestly, I've had trouble sleeping since I finished reading — pure excitement. Looking forward to the future.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

“Look Ma, No Funnel!” - ABS Grants AIP for Nuclear-Powered 15,000 TEU Containership

Momentum for nuclear cargo ships continues to build, as a concept design for a nuclear-powered 15,000 TEU container ship—featuring a small modular reactor (SMR) using a marine molten salt reactor (MSR)—has received approval in principle from ABS.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Royal Navy launches strike drone from XV Patrick Blackett in landmark trial

The UK Royal Navy has launched a one-way attack drone from a ship underway for the first time—a technological feat that makes land more defensible but likely renders the seas more dangerous for the merchant fleet, as seafarer casualties continue to rise.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #07
I attended Sea-Ahead’s annual event at the beautiful 10 World Trade Center in Boston a few weeks ago. My connection to BlueSwell and SeaAhead goes back to 2019, when I was building Kivio and someone told me: if you're doing anything in maritime, you need to know Alissa and SeaAhead. I went on to mentor the program's first two cohorts in 2019 and 2020.

The program has scaled in every direction since those early days. The startup quality this cohort was the strongest I've seen, and the room reflected it — founders, coastal city and state agency representatives, and investors all showing up to see what the teams had built over their four-month run .

Three companies stood out to me.

1. Robosys Automation - building maritime autonomy and smart-shipping software for crewed, lean-crewed, and fully autonomous vessels ranging from 3 to 320 meters .

2. A stealth-mode startup unveiled a small, ultra-agile unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) capable of intercepting torpedoes, going 0-to-60 mph in under 0.1 seconds — the kind of platform that could anchor a future underwater "iron dome" .

3. Adaptora - combines fiber-optic sensing with geospatial analytics to give infrastructure owners defensible, depth-resolved data on coastal change .

If any of these catch your interest, reach out to me or Camille Kaczmar at SeaAhead for an introduction.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Saronic's $3B Bet: The World's Most Advanced Autonomous Shipyard

Saronic Technologies has selected Brownsville, Texas, as the site for Port Alpha, a shipyard the company is investing more than $3 billion to build . The initial 835-acre phase will produce vessels up to 850 feet long, with room to expand to nearly 4,400 acres and support for ships over 1,200 feet down the line .

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Europe Bets Small on Underwater Security — Triton Depth Raises €1M 

Danish defense-tech startup Triton Depth closed a €1 million pre-seed round, led by EIFO and The Creator Fund, to build a passive acoustic sensor network for European underwater security and maritime intelligence .

It's a modest check compared to Saronic's billions, but the timing matters. Subsea sensing and seabed security have become urgent priorities across Europe and Asia, from the UK's new Plymouth subsea test range to India's push for an underwater fiber-optic surveillance grid .

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #06
Posidonia is a lot more than just a conference. It is a full immersion into the maritime world — and this edition delivered.

The who's who of global shipping converged on Athens for a week of expo floors, business meetings, networking dinners, and late nights. I barely slept four hours on most of them. I got to reconnect with tens of old friends — including Kosta, my local guide — and meet many new ones. I visited a tanker with Saurabh, caught up with Prabhu, and was glad to have Avikalp fly in from India to experience the industry firsthand. Conversations like these are what Posidonia is really for.

Three things stood out among all the technology on display:

1. Flettner Rotors are going mainstream. I counted at least five vendors at the expo selling these vertical spinning cylinders that harness the Magnus effect to generate thrust from wind. The pitch is compelling: up to 25% fuel savings, with a payback period of five to six years.

2. Nuclear propulsion for cargo ships is closer than it sounds. I finally found a company actively building toward this — Ampera, based in Florida. Their team believes their technology for commercial cargo vessels could be ready within five years. Given the ABS approval the MIT Maritime Consortium just received for their nuclear reactor design, the regulatory and commercial groundwork is being laid in parallel.

3. Hull cleaning is still a growing market. More builders are entering this space every year. Boston's own Fleet Robotics and Europe's Cliin both had strong presences at the expo. But the company that impressed me most was Shipshave — not for flashiness, but for the simplicity of their solution.

Can’t wait for the next Posidonia. Only 695 days to go!

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

A Data Center That Sails — Kraaken™ Is Here

South Carolina-based Optimal Transit this week unveiled Kraaken™, a family of self-powered maritime AI data center platforms ranging from 10 MW to 100 MW .

Unlike conventional offshore data center concepts, Kraaken™ generates its own electricity by combining ocean thermal energy with the waste heat of the data center itself — through a patented multi-stage Digital Ocean Thermal (DOT) engine — eliminating the need for grid power, freshwater cooling, or fuel deliveries.

By the way, Samsung Heavy Industries unveiled a similar concept at Posidonia.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

UK and Netherlands Sign £2.4B Deal for Next-Gen Amphibious Ships

The UK and Netherlands signed a £2.4 billion agreement on July 7 to jointly build eight next-generation amphibious transport ships — four for each navy . At 160 metres and 15,000 tonnes, the vessels are designed to transport troops, vehicles, and drones, with flight decks optimized for current and future long-range autonomous systems .

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #05
We hosted the Maritime Tech Summit as part of Boston Tech Week, and the response exceeded every expectation.

Over 150 people registered. We had a room set up for 50 — and 70+ showed up. We had to turn people away at the door and pivot to a live Zoom stream for those we couldn't fit. The energy in the room was something I haven't seen at a maritime event in a long time.

The session opened with a fireside chat with Alissa Peterson, founder and CEO of Sea-Ahead — one of the sharpest voices in maritime innovation right now, and often dubbed the OG. We talked about where the industry is headed, what are the challenges, and what's quietly becoming real.

We welcomed our special guests and sponsors from Dubai - Capt. Saurabh Kumar, and Prabhu Singh, FICS.

Then came the main act: 10 builders actively building for the maritime industry, each presenting their technology and fielding live questions from the audience. Here is a link to the event photos and to the run of show / presentation from the projects below.

Here's who was in the room:

1 Lookout: The ultimate view for situational awareness
2 Zydro Marine: Toolkit for maritime spatial intelligence
3 Boundary: Rapid vessel production with GenAI & advanced manufacturing
4 Spectronn: Real-time maritime intelligence
5 Amphora: Advanced materials for shipping
6 NautIQ: Marina automation systems
7 Current Labs: Ocean current forecasts on the edge
8 Orpheus: Deep seabed AUVs
9 Flood Dynamics: Compound flood intelligence
10 Wada Hoppah: Electric commercial vessels

If any of these catch your eye — look them up, or reply and I'll make an intro.

The weeks that followed the Boston Tech Week have been even more exciting. More on that in the next one.

Happy 4th!

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Nuclear Propulsion for Cargo Ships Clears a Major Regulatory Milestone

The American Bureau of Shipping has granted its Approval in Principle (AIP) for a nuclear reactor designed for cargo vessel propulsion — the first AIP of its kind — awarded to the MIT Maritime Consortium .

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

Autonomous Sea Drones Are Scaling — Maritime Robotics Raises €28M

Norwegian autonomous maritime systems company Maritime Robotics closed a €28 million growth round led by Mustard Seed + Partners, with continued backing from existing investors EnvisionTech, Nysnø Climate Investments, and Umoe.

It's a data point worth noting: the money isn't just going to autonomous vessel startups in the U.S. defense orbit. The commercial and dual-use market for autonomous maritime systems is global, and it's accelerating.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #04
The IMO's Maritime Safety Committee wrapped its 111th session today — May 22 — and delivered what many in the industry have been waiting years for: the formal adoption of the International Code of Safety for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS Code).

The code is non-mandatory and goal-based, meaning it provides a regulatory framework — covering everything from risk assessment and system design to remote operations, connectivity, and watchkeeping — without mandating immediate compliance. It enters into effect on 1 July 2026, kicking off an experience-building phase that will feed data into a mandatory version of the code, currently targeted for 2028–2032.

The most interesting thing I noted is about the timeline. The committee is not sure if the Jan 1, 2032 deadline is practical and many believe 2036 might be a more reasonable goal. However, for now, they decided to stick to 2032.

This is a foundational moment. Before today, autonomous vessels operated under legal frameworks designed for fully-crewed ships in 1978. The MASS Code doesn't solve everything but it gives regulators, classification societies, insurers, and operators a shared language and a starting point.

​For founders, operators, and investors in this space: the regulatory risk profile of autonomous maritime just got meaningfully lower. The rules now exist. The race to build within them is on.

If you want to read the code directly, download it from the IMO’s website (you will need to create an account), or just ask me.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Saronic + Lloyd's Register: Autonomy Goes Global

Hot on the heels of the MASS Code adoption, autonomous vessel developer Saronic announced a strategic partnership with Lloyd's Register (LR) to advance classification, standards, and regulatory pathways for autonomous surface vessels in the UK, Europe, and Australia.

Under the agreement, Saronic will pursue LR classification for its autonomous surface vessels, while the two organizations work jointly on practical rules, technical standards, and coordinated engagement with regional regulators. The partnership builds on Saronic's existing classification work with the American Bureau of Shipping in the U.S.

Saronic — valued at $9.25 billion after a $1.75 billion funding round led by Kleiner Perkins in March — has been on an aggressive growth trajectory. The company recently acquired a former shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana, investing $300 million to renovate and expand it for autonomous vessel production, expected to create 1,500 jobs. They've also partnered with Nvidia on AI chips for vessel design and operation, and hold a multi-year, $392 million Navy production contract

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

A Ship That Makes More Energy Than It Uses

UK deep-tech startup DRIFT Energy received an Approval in Principle (AiP) from class society RINA this week — the first AiP ever awarded for an energy-harvesting vessel.

The concept is genuinely different from anything classified before. DRIFT's ships use hydro-kinetic turbines mounted beneath the hull to generate electricity while underway, then convert that power via onboard electrolysis into green hydrogen for storage and delivery to ports and coastal communities. The ships aren't just transportation — they're floating renewable energy plants. DRIFT calls the target outcome the world's first "net-positive vessel".

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #03

Last week, the team from PIER71— Singapore's flagship maritime innovation hub, backed by the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore and NUS Enterprise — came through Boston again on their global roadshow for the Smart Port Challenge 2026. Last year I hosted them and sat on a panel. This year I wanted to do more than just show up — so I helped them dig deeper into the Boston startup ecosystem, connecting them with specific teams building in the maritime space.

This programme is personal to me. Back in 2019, my startup Kivio was a grand-finalist of the Smart Port Challenge. Kivio was building infrastructure to tokenize the assets and rights used in liquid bulk maritime trade — bills of lading, cargo claims, charter rights — and make them tradeable via NFTs and atomic swaps, years before either of those terms became fashionable. We didn't win. But the programme put us in rooms we couldn't have otherwise entered, and shaped how I think about what it takes to bring a genuinely new idea to an industry that is centuries old and allergic to change.

For those unfamiliar: the Smart Port Challenge is an annual global competition where PIER71 works with 100+ maritime corporates to translate real industry pain points into innovation opportunities — structured problem statements that startups are invited to solve. This year, they've published 20 innovation opportunities spanning four focus areas: Maritime Green Technologies, Next-Generation Ports, Smart Shipping, and Digitalisation (AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity). Shortlisted teams go through a 10-week SPC Accelerate programme in Singapore — mentorship, workshops, corporate pilot matching — and the top teams compete at the Great Circle Grand Finale in November. Graduates can also apply for MPA's MINT Fund: up to SGD $100,000 for proof-of-concept pilots, and up to SGD $250,000 for new product development. The full list of 20 innovation opportunities is live at pier71.sg/smart-port-challenge-2026— applications close June 15.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

The MASS Code Is Almost Here — IMO MSC 111 in Session Now

The IMO's Maritime Safety Committee is meeting in London this week — May 13 to 22 — for its 111th session (MSC 111), and the headline item is the long-awaited International Code of Safety for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS Code). After years of regulatory groundwork beginning with a formal scoping exercise in 2017, MSC 111 is expected to finalize and adopt the non-mandatory, goal-based code — a landmark step that will for the first time give the industry a structured international framework for remotely controlled and autonomous ship operations.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

HII & MetalCraft Marine Deliver Autonomous USV Prototypes to the U.S. Marine Corps — Today

In news that dropped just today, defense shipbuilder HII, in partnership with Canadian boat manufacturer MetalCraft Marine, announced the delivery and successful sea testing of two next-generation autonomous unmanned surface vehicle (USV) prototypes for the U.S. Marine Corps. The vessels are designed for littoral and expeditionary operations — precisely the kind of fast, uncrewed platforms the Marines need for island-hopping and coastal warfare scenarios in contested waters. With this delivery, HII joins Saildrone, Blue Water Autonomy, and Saronic in what is rapidly becoming the most competitive unmanned shipbuilding race in history.

Read more →

A Final Note

x1025 | Issue #02
The Hondius Outbreak

• The Dutch expedition cruise vessel MV Hondius departed Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1, 2026, carrying 114 guests on an Antarctic voyage. The first passenger died of the Andes strain of hantavirus on April 11 — his body removed at Saint Helena, where his wife also disembarked before dying two days later in a Johannesburg hospital.

• As of May 9, there were six confirmed and two suspected hantavirus cases aboard, with three total deaths.

• The ship docked at the port of Granadilla, Tenerife, on the morning of May 10. All remaining passengers began disembarking in managed groups under strict health protocols, escorted by Spanish Civil Guard patrol vessels and transferred directly to repatriation flights.

Reading about the MV Hondius took me back to a morning in 2007. We had just cast off lines at the port of Singapore — the skyline shrinking behind us — when I had an accident. A fracture, though I didn't know that for certain yet. What I did know was this: the next port was Vadinar, India, several days away across the Indian Ocean, and there was no X-ray machine, no plaster cast, no orthopaedic surgeon. Just a first-aid kit, a bottle of painkillers, and a swollen leg I had to drag through watch duty for days. You suck it up. You keep going. Because there is no other choice.

The sea teaches you very quickly that distance is not just a number on a chart — it is a wall between you and the rest of the world.

That wall became even more real in 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a batchmate of mine — a captain on an oil tanker — contracted the coronavirus while onboard. There was no proper medical attention on board. By the time the ship could reach a port and he could be transferred to hospital care, it was too late. He died in an ICU on the Canary Islands — the very same archipelago now once again the backdrop of a maritime medical crisis. He was experienced, he was careful, and he was still entirely at the mercy of geography.

The MV Hondius is a different kind of vessel — a polar expedition ship carrying tourists, not a working cargo ship. But the shared terror is identical: when something goes wrong at sea, the ocean simply does not care.

Which brings me to a question I keep returning to. We now have the tools — machine learning, satellite communications, AI-driven navigation, remote sensor arrays — to genuinely rethink the human cost of seafaring. If a ship's bridge can be managed from an operations center ashore, if an engine room can be monitored by AI 24/7 with automated fault detection, if a vessel can cross an ocean for months without a soul on board — then shouldn't we ask, seriously and loudly: Why are we still asking people to risk their health, their safety, and years away from their families, when the technology to change that exists today? 

The argument was once made that automation is the "next logical step" in shipping, and I believe every fractured ankle, every preventable death at sea, is a data point that says — that step is overdue.

Industry briefing - 1 of 2

Blue Water Autonomy Scales Up for the U.S. Navy

Boston-based autonomous shipbuilder Blue Water Autonomy announced last week a multi-partner manufacturing model to accelerate production of its Liberty Class — a 190-foot autonomous vessel currently under construction at Conrad Shipyard in Louisiana for the U.S. Navy's Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) program, a $6+ billion initiative.

The partnership brings in Caterpillar for marine diesel engines, Tulip for AI-native manufacturing execution, Precise Power Systems for containerised engine modules, and Valstad for modular structural panel kits — with a live autonomy demonstration targeted for this summer.

Read more →

Industry briefing - 2 of 2

ABS and HD KSOE Sign Digital Shipbuilding MOU

American classification society ABS and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) — the engineering arm of HD Hyundai, the world's largest shipbuilder — signed a memorandum of understanding this week to jointly develop Digital Threads for the full vessel lifecycle: from digital engineering and 3D model-based approvals, to autonomous vessel systems and integrated cybersecurity guidelines that go beyond existing IACS requirements.

Read more →

A Final Note

Walk onto the bridge of a modern container ship, and you'll find a strange paradox. The vessel itself represents cutting-edge naval architecture—massive engines, sophisticated hull designs, and advanced navigation systems. But the operations? Still largely manual, paper-heavy, and dependent on human expertise that's becoming increasingly scarce.

Ship management today relies on processes that haven't fundamentally changed in several decades. Maintenance logs on paper or basic spreadsheets. Crew scheduling managed through phone calls and emails. Performance monitoring that happens days or weeks after the fact, if at all.

This isn't because the industry is lazy or resistant to change. Maritime operations are uniquely complex—vessels operate in harsh, remote environments with limited connectivity, regulatory frameworks span multiple jurisdictions, and the consequences of failure are catastrophic. The industry has been justifiably conservative.

But that conservatism is becoming unsustainable.

The global shortage of qualified seafarers is accelerating. Fewer people want to spend months away from home, and training new officers takes years. The average age of ship captains is rising, and the pipeline of replacements isn't keeping pace. This isn't a problem you can throw money at. It requires reimagining how ships are operated and managed.

Technology Has Caught Up

For the first time, the technology exists to actually solve these problems. Satellite connectivity (Starlink and competitors) is making real-time ship-to-shore data transfer economically viable. Computer vision can monitor cargo and detect maintenance issues. Machine learning can optimize routes and predict equipment failures. Digital twins can simulate vessel performance. The pieces are finally in place.

The industry is poised for a major overhaul and I am here to to take you through the transition.

The transformation won't be a single revolution—it'll be a cascade of changes that compound:

Autonomous Operations (Not Ships)

Forget fully autonomous vessels crossing oceans without crews—that's decades away. The real opportunity is autonomous operations. AI systems that handle routine decision-making: optimal route adjustments, engine performance tuning, maintenance scheduling, fuel optimization. Humans remain in command, but they're managing by exception rather than handling every detail.

Predictive Everything

Maintenance schedules based on actual equipment condition rather than arbitrary intervals. Route planning that accounts for weather, currents, port congestion, and fuel prices simultaneously. Crew scheduling optimized for certification requirements, rest periods, and operational needs. Every decision backed by data rather than experience alone.

Unified Data Ecosystems

Ship operators, charterers, port authorities, customs officials, and logistics providers all working from a single source of truth. No more sending the same information in six different formats to eight different parties. Blockchain-based documentation that's immutable and globally accessible. APIs that let systems talk to each other seamlessly.

Vertical AI Solutions

General-purpose software can't handle maritime's unique complexity. The future belongs to vertical AI built specifically for shipping—systems that understand ISM Code compliance, MARPOL regulations, charter party agreements, and the realities of vessel operations. These aren't chatbots; they're decision-support systems trained on maritime-specific data.

The ships are ready. The technology is ready. The economic and regulatory pressure is undeniable.

The only question is: who's ready to lead?

What do you think is the biggest barrier to maritime innovation—technology, regulation, or culture? Reply and let me know.

Maritime tech news 1 of 2

ABS and Boston-based Fleet Robotics Advance Autonomous Hull-Cleaning Tech

On April 24, 2026, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) signed a memorandum of understanding with Fleet Robotics to collaborate on autonomous robotic systems for hull cleaning and inspection. By utilizing advanced underwater robotics, the partnership targets biofouling—the buildup of marine organisms on a ship's hull that increases hydrodynamic drag. Deploying these autonomous systems is expected to significantly improve vessel fuel efficiency and provide a greener alternative to traditional maintenance methods.Behind every perfect corner lies intention.

Read more →

Maritime tech news 2 of 2

Anduril and Kraken Partner on Autonomous Maritime Capabilities

US-based defense technology firm Anduril Industries and autonomous maritime technology company Kraken Technology Group announced a strategic partnership at the Sea-Air-Space Expo in late April. The collaboration is designed to scale the domestic manufacturing and integration of unmanned maritime capabilities in the US. This joint effort aims to accelerate the US Navy’s ongoing transition toward a hybrid fleet composed of both manned and autonomous vessels.

Read more →

A Final Note