To support greater collaboration around innovation and digitalisation within the maritime landscape, IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group participated for the first time in the 4th edition of Enterprise Singapore’s prestigious Trade and Connectivity Challenge (TCC).

Organised by Enterprise Singapore, the initiative is the largest of its kind in the region, aimed at driving partnerships between corporates and start-ups to tackle industry and digital transformation opportunities in the trade and connectivity sectors. 

TCC 4 attracted over 100 submissions across more than 41 countries for the problem statement provided by Aurora Tankers, our liquid bulk shipping business specialising in the management and operation of a top-class MR Chemical Tanker fleet to facilitate the worldwide transportation of chemicals, clean petroleum products and vegetable oils.

The problem posed, “How can we automate highly manual demand-supply forecasts to unlock new insights and empower commercial decisions on vessel deployment?”, is a consequential one as many of the data gathering and information processing activities needed to make trade decisions today are highly manual in the maritime industry.

As not all data is available publicly, teams typically have to rely on their own networks to obtain information, which may not always be accurate. As such, recommendations tend to be subjective and depend on individual assessments of the current situation, which may in turn lead to inconsistent decision-making.

Shortlisted start-ups refined their innovative concepts under the guidance of IMC Ventures over a period of 9 months, culminating in 2 of our partner teams making it to the final judging round to vie for a cut of the total prize pool of S$100,000 of grant prizes.

Reflecting on his experience collaborating with the start-ups, Axel Tan, Innovation Lead, IMC Ventures, said: “By embracing collaboration with start-ups, we are bringing bold and fresh ideas to solve longstanding challenges in the industry. The synergy between corporates and start-ups creates a win-win situation, accelerating progress to build a more sustainable and resilient future for all stakeholders.”