Damen Shipyards Group has become a corporate partner of the PortXL accelerator program for the maritime industry… Once again. In 2015 Damen was one of the first companies to support the start-up support program in its early days.

“We will be participating again from this year on,” explains Jan-Willem van Helden of Damen. “We want to boost the transition of the maritime sector. In addition to our Research, Development & Innovation trajectories and our own Corporate Venturing programme, in which we work together with start-ups and scale-ups, collaboration within PortXL is an excellent opportunity to create acceleration in the field of sustainability and digitalisation.”

Novel solutions

Tara Koole, Program Managerat PortXL said: “At PortXL we welcome Damen and look forward to working together towards our common mission. Our corporate partners are at the forefront of maritime innovation. Their desire to innovate and collaborate with novel solutions is what fuels PortXL.”

The industry has major challenges ahead of it, the main two being energy transition and digitalisation. The search for reducing emissions to (almost) zero is an endeavor that will shape shipping in the next decades. The digitalisation of operations is a precondition for this, but is also a particularly important driver to improve the quality and efficiency of work overall.

Over 150 ships annually

Family-owned business Damen Shipyards Group has been in operation for over ninety years and operates 36 shipyards in 18 countries. Damen offers direct employment to more than 11,000 people, bringing together a total production value of over 2 billion euros and delivering over 150 ships annually. Damen wants to be the most sustainable shipbuilder in the world. Digitalisation and standardisation of platforms are important preconditions for this. Their main activities are the design and serial construction of inventive ships by integrating diverse components and subsystems into high-quality platforms. These activities are supported by a worldwide sales and service network.

About PortXL

PortXL is the world’s first port accelerator and is unique in its kind, with a global network of leading companies and experts. The objective of PortXL is the acceleration of innovative technologies for the green energy, maritime, logistics and process industry in port regions across the world. In doing so, PortXL activates the largest possible ecosystem to stimulate entrepreneurship for all parties involved. The PortXL ecosystem consists of start-ups and scale-ups, investors and partners, and market leading companies such as lead partners Van Oord and Port of Rotterdam, as well as partners Vopak, Boskalis, Shell, Oceanco, Deltares, City of Rotterdam, Ampelmann, Damen, InnovationQuarter and Provincie Zuid-Holland. PortXL was launched in 2015 aimed at bridging the gap between innovative entrepreneurs and the established port industry. PortXL links these two worlds. PortXL is in its seventh year of operations and has so far executed more than 10 programs, accelerated more than 100 start-ups and scale-ups, and facilitated the signing of over 220 contracts.

Pictured: Tara Koole, PortXL & Tom Akkerman, Damen (right)