If you thought self-driving was just for cars, think again: The so-called “autonomous navigation” market, in which ships steer themselves according to AI instructions, saving fuel and time, is predicted to grow from $4.46 billion in 2023 to $5.33 billion in 2024 alone.
Orca AI is a London-based startup that claims to have achieved the world's first autonomous commercial ship navigation in crowded waters. He was added $23 million in new funding led by OCV Partners and MizMaa Ventures. The funding is said to be between Series A and B, bringing the total raised to nearly $40 million.
The startup was founded in late 2018 and plans to commercially launch its AI navigation technology in 2021, having also raised $13 million in Series A funding. The latest capital infusion will be used to scale and expand, the company told TechCrunch. It will invest in building new products and leveraging the data the platform ingests from clients. Expansion of the engineering team is also planned.
Founded by Israeli naval technology experts Yarden Gross and Dor Labiv, Orca AI's platform processes multiple visual sources while at sea, keeping the ship on course and enabling crews to keep an eye out for other aspects of their voyage, such as drone attacks and piracy in an increasingly geopolitically volatile era.
Citing the results of 2023 trials, Orca claims its system is so accurate that it could reduce “close encounters on the open seas” by 33 percent and “crossing events” by 40 percent over 15 million nautical miles. (According to a European Maritime Safety Agency report, there were more than 2,500 serious maritime incidents in 2022.)
It also claims that the system can generate fuel savings of $100,000 to $300,000 per vessel per year (reducing fuel consumption by 3-5%). Additionally, Orca AI suggests that its technology has saved 72,716 tonnes of CO2 across 1,000 vessels last year.
The shipping industry is under pressure to reduce its carbon footprint, creating an opportunity for entrepreneurs to digitize the industry and apply technologies such as AI to increase efficiency.
While potentially harsh and dangerous working conditions for seafarers, a growing range of threats affecting the world's shipping routes is putting pressure on the industry and the potential for increased automation of crews. there is.
“In the meantime, we can optimize and automate many parts of the voyage, reduce the workload, reduce the number of people. We can optimize fuel consumption, emissions, ETA,” Gross, CEO and co-founder of Orca AI, said in a call with TechCrunch. [estimated time of arrival] It makes safety holistically. That's what we're building. We're building a platform that services the ship itself.”
Gross said the Orca platform uploads all data to the cloud, providing fleet managers with monitoring tools and capabilities, “which means you can operate an entire fleet, not just one vessel. So you can think of this as a semi-autonomous fleet operating platform.”
Hemi Zucker, managing partner at OCV, added in a statement of support: “Maritime shipping is the lifeblood of international trade and the global economy. More than 80% of global merchandise trade volume is carried by sea, a market worth an estimated $2 trillion. While planes, trains and cars have made significant advances and investments in autopilots and collision avoidance, we believe the shipping industry still has an opportunity, and that autonomous ships – ships captained by themselves – represent a crucial opportunity.”
Orca AI works with global shipping companies such as MSC, NYK, Maersk and Seaspan.
Other companies working on autonomous navigation at sea include Hyundai HD's Avikus and Sea Machines.