YPSN hosted their hotly anticipated global maritime pitch competition on Tuesday 19th November during Hong Kong Maritime Week. Six startups battled it out to win U$25,000 as well as mentoring from HFW Consulting and a 12 month business support contract and media contract with Lloyd's Register. The finalists were Quaychain, Portcast, Searoute, Marified, Towbotics and Irwin Rotational Linings who pitched in front of 6 judges representing the industry and investors. Singapore-based Portcast won the inaugural Captain’s Table. Founded in 2017, Portcast brings predictive data analytics to the maritime industry, helping logistics companies with demand forecasting, automated pricing and capacity utilisation. The machine learning platform uses real-time external data to predict cargo flows. Judges praised the pitch made by Portcast CEO, Nidhi Gupta, saying the timing was really great to enter the market and take a significant slice of the predicative analytics business.
The Captain’s Table, will return next year cementing its position as the most global maritime startup pitch event.