If you thought autonomous driving was only for cars, think again. The ‘autonomous navigation’ market – where ships are guided by artificial intelligence, resulting in fuel and time savings – is predicted to grow from $4.46 billion in 2023 to $5.33 billion only in 2024.
Orca AI is a London-based startup that claims to have powered the world’s first autonomous merchant ship voyage in congested waters. Now $23 million in new funding has been added, led by OCV Partners and MizMaa Ventures. The funding, which we’re told is between a Series A and Series B, brings the total amount raised to nearly $40 million.
The startup was founded in late 2018 and went on to commercially launch its AI navigation technology in 2021 — when it also raised a $13 million Series A round. The latest funding will be used for scaling and expansion, the company told TechCrunch, and to invest in building new products — drawing on data the platform receives from customers. Expanding its engineering team is also on the cards.
Founded by Israeli marine technology experts Yarden Gross and Dor Raviv, Orca AI processes multiple sources of visual information during navigation at sea, keeping the ship on course and freeing the crew to monitor other aspects of the voyage, such as drone attacks and piracy. occurring in increasingly volatile geopolitical times.
Citing results from a Trial 2023, Orca claims its system is so accurate that it was able to reduce “close encounters in open water” by 33% and “crossings” by 40% over 15 million nautical miles. (For some context, there were over 2,500 major maritime incidents in 2022, according to the European Maritime Safety Agency report.)
It also claims the system can yield $100,000 to $300,000 in fuel savings per vessel per year (reducing fuel consumption by 3% to 5%). In addition, Orca AI suggests that its technology achieved CO2 down 72,716 tons on 1,000 ships last year.
Shipping is under pressure to reduce its carbon footprint – creating opportunities for entrepreneurs to digitize the industry and implement technologies such as artificial intelligence to boost efficiency.
What can be harsh and dangerous working conditions for seafarers, with a growing range of threats affecting global shipping lanes, are also putting pressures on the industry that could lead to increased crew automation.
In a call with TechCrunch, Gross, CEO and co-founder of Orca AI, said: “When you talk about ocean-going ships, we will see, in the near future, ships sailing without a crew. In the meantime, you can optimize and automate many parts of the journey, reducing the workload while also reducing the number of people. You can optimize your fuel consumption emissions [and] the ETA [estimated time of arrival] and increase safety overall. So this is what we are building. We are building a platform that serves the ship itself.”
Gross said Orca’s platform uploads all data to the cloud, providing fleet managers with tracking tools and capabilities. “It means they can handle not one boat, but the whole fleet. So you can think of it as an operational platform for a semi-autonomous fleet.”
Commenting in a supporting statement, Hemi Zucker, managing partner of OCV, added: “Marine transport is the lifeblood of international trade and the global economy. More than 80% of the volume of international trade in goods is carried by sea, a $2 trillion market by some estimates. While planes, trains and cars have seen huge advances and investments in autopilot and collision avoidance, we believe the shipping industry is still wide open and there is a category defining opportunity in autonomous ships – ships that steer the same”.
Orca AI works with global shipping companies including MSC, NYK, Maersk and Seaspan.
Other companies working on autonomous sea navigation include; Avikus (subsidiary of Hyundai HD) and Marine Machinery.
