The Lloyd's Register Safety Accelerator held its first Dragon's Den-style selection event, A Safer World: Digital Showcase, in September at SMM Hamburg, the leading international maritime trade fair, where 11 startups finalists of the Safety Accelerator’s Round 1 Innovation Challenges pitched their safetytech solutions in front of a panel of expert judges and an industry audience.
Selected from more than 140 startup companies, the 11 finalists from Europe and the US presented their proposals to tackle the Round 1 challenges set in collaboration with three corporate challenges partners: Kotug, a leading provider of safe harbour and terminal towage services; Gassco, the Norwegian state-owned gas transportation company; and Lloyd’s Register.
Hosted by Safety Accelerator partner, Plug and Play, the Digital Showcase brought together leading marine and offshore professionals with some of the most promising safetytech startups with solutions to shape the future of the industry. Over the course of the half-day event, attendees heard from, and met, entrepreneurs developing digital solutions to critical safety challenges, networked with potential partners, collaborators and suppliers, and got to explore some of the new tech themselves at the startups’ demo tables.
This first round of challenges focused on finding innovative digital solutions to improve human safety onboard ships and floating platforms. On the day, the specially selected entrepreneurs pitched new cutting-edge solutions harnessing artificial intelligence, sensors and wearables to meet challenges such as how to enable more dynamic, real-time risk assessment, improve job safety and better detect and visualise leaks and gas clouds.
Each startup had just a short 10 minutes to pitch their proposed solution to their challenge’s judging panel, made up of representatives from the corporate challenge partners, as well as technology and VC experts from Lloyd’s Register and Plug and Play. The winning startups (subject to contract), recognised for their approach to the challenge, will now receive trial funding through the Safety Accelerator to support a collaborative industry trial of their proposed solution with corporate challenge partners. They will also benefit from access to domain expertise and commercialisation support from Lloyd’s Register and entrepreneurial support from Plug and Play.
The Safety Accelerator challenge series brings together startups and industry leaders to work together to solve tough safety and risk challenges using digital technology and helps to derisk the innovation process by funding live collaborative trials of new and emerging, high potential solutions while generating compelling business cases. If you’re interested in the Safety Accelerator programme and how it work, please join us for our next selection day on 28 November in London or get in touch with Safety Accelerator Lead, Steve Price.
And now, without further ado, the Safety Accelerator Round 1 Innovation Challenges, finalists and challenge winners are:
Challenge: Navigating gas vapour clouds, in conjunction with Kotug.
Finalists:
Rebellion Photonics: Rebellion's Gas Cloud Imaging (GCI) system uses hyperspectral imaging technology and detection algorithms to pinpoint the source and extent of leaks.
NeuroControls: NeuroControls develops Cognitive Sensors and Systems using the latest A.I. technologies in electronics and cloud computing.
Indrio Technologies: Indrio Technologies are a Silicon Valley-based laser absorption gas sensing company.
Winner: NeuroControls
Challenge: Detecting minor leaks in complex industrial environments, in conjunction with Gassco.
Finalists:
Rebellion Photonics: Rebellion's Gas Cloud Imaging (GCI) system uses hyperspectral imaging technology and detection algorithms to pinpoint the source and extent of leaks.
eLichens: eLichens offers disruptive sensors and services to measure the Air Quality for the consumer and industrial markets.
Multisensor Scientific: Multisensor Scientific are developing the world's first non-thermal optical gas imaging camera to locate and quantify natural gas leaks in real-time.
Winner: Multisensor Scientific
Challenge: Ensuring marine and offshore crew competency, in conjunction with Lloyd’s Register.
Finalists:
Bleenco: Bleenco are a developer of an AI software designed to help automotive companies to connect vehicle software with IoT and understand driver behaviour.
Workerbase: Workerbase offers the first smartwatch specifically designed for industrial use with manufacturing apps connecting to an IoT backend.
Heptasense: Heptasense allows companies to easily customise and embed software that track and analyse human patterns into their products and applications, without the need for training and calibrations procedures.
Winner: Workerbase
Challenge: Enhancing dynamic risk assessment, in conjunction with Lloyd’s Register.
Finalists:
Engineurs: Engineurs is a provider of expert professional services optimised by bespoke and off the shelf IT based systems.
AX Semantics: AX Semantics is a content creation software based on data for e-commerce and publishing customers.
LexaTexer: LexaTexer offers predictive analytics, to help corporations direct decision-making, by analysing unstructured information (documents) with machine learning technology.
Winner: LexaTexer
More information about Safety Accelerator can be found on their website:
