Marine Ahoy wins Wärtsilä contest

The company is developing a customer service touchpoint for marines and convenience tool for sailors.

It hopes to enable marinas to operate around the clock with a real-time connection that automates routine tasks for sailors and marinas.

Tero Hottinen, general manager of business innovation at Wärtsilä, said: “The overall quality of finalists was really high, and the decision was made mainly based on two key factors.”

He explained: “Innovativeness, especially potential for business disruption, and which entry would most benefit from the development sprint organised by Wärtsilä and Shift Actions.”

The contest’s aim was to find a unique idea for digital serviced to bring value to the marine industry.

Marina Ahoy now has a chance to develop its idea further together with Wärtsilä experts and a company specialised in agile concept and product development, Shift Actions.

“All in all, we received 47 submissions from 17 difference countries. The overall quality of applications was really high and we had a positive problem in selecting the finalists,” added Mr Hottinen.

In addition to winner, other finalists included novel data analytics tools and methodology, structural shape monitoring technology, a fuel-saving routing solution, and a spectral sensor system the measures chemical composition of solids, liquids and gasses.

Hannes Koppel, CEO and founder of Marina Ahoy, said: “We are thrilled about the victory and the chance to develop our innovation further together with Wärtsilä and Shift Actions.”

“We want to make marina services easy and convenient for sailors, but at the same time boost the marinas’ business by enabling them to automate their basic operations.”