About

Our mission is to redefine voyage optimisation solutions, by utilising artificial intelligence, naval engineering and space technology for a greener shipping sector. Promilist is one of the first startups to be supported by the Business Incubator of the European Space Agency in Greece (ESA BIC Greece).

Solution & Product

In the shipping sector, emissions simply relate to the amount and type of fuel consumed, and as we can see, CO2 emissions have been a main issue to be addressed for maritime transportation from both an economic and environmental point of view. As international organisations begin to take action to reduce the emissions of the shipping sector, large ships trading at European and global ports are obliged to monitor and report their fuel consumption, as well as opt to reduce their annual average CO2 emissions on a linear basis. In Promilist, we have developed a cutting-edge weather routing software (SaaS) that calculates -in a mathematically verifiable way- the best possible route for a ship to take, reducing fuel consumption and GHG emissions by up to 20% per trip. This in turn, results in savings on both fuel costs and -the upcoming- emission taxes and penalties that may also eventually increase supply chain costs. By utilising weather forecasts, vessel specific information and artificial intelligence we can optimise the vessel’s route, in real time and effectively save fuel and CO2 emissions. So, in a nutshell, the maritime sector can transfer commodities and function more efficiently while addressing climate change. Finally, our project aligns with the following UN Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 12, for sustainable consumption. Goal 13, for taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Innovation & Scalability

Our innovative weather routing software finds the best possible route for a ship to take (and not just a better one in comparison with the orthodrome), in order to have the minimum fuel consumption and a timely arrival. Unlike other competitors and the common market practice, we don’t do linear interpolation from the grid data. We employ Neural Network Regression for the data grid and we use that for the calculations to achieve memory reduction. The above-mentioned approach, namely the Calculus of Variations approach, combines the analysis of Earth Observation data, artificial intelligence technology, naval engineering parameters and out-performs the currently used graph-based methods. That ensures superior accuracy of our optimised route, as well as scalability at lower costs. In addition, our API allows us to expose the functionalities of our Neural Network to our clients, ensuring an easy integration with their existing systems, making us more personalised and extensible than the competition. Compared with alternatives weather routing softwares, our solution: A) Is guaranteed to find the best possible route, and not just a better one, B) which in turn means optimised fuel and emissions reduction. C) Can have as much accuracy as required. D) Minimises the required “calculation” time to find the best route. E) Minimises the required hardware installation needed to run the software. F) Our service is easily extensible and scalable through our API.

Traction & achievements

So far, Promilist has been granted €50.000 by the European Space Agency, for developing software solutions that use space data and has also won the 2022 John & Mary Pappajohn Business Plan award, €4.000. Promilist has also been awarded the 1st place at “Blue Growth” category | 2nd place at “Innovation Idea Holder” on the 2021 Green Tech Challenge, and it was at the top 5 finalists in the “Robotics and AI” Category of the Imperial College London VC Challenge 2022, which was powered by Huawei. Moreover, Promilist is a member of the Hellenic Association of Space Industries and it’s being supported by German Hellenic Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and GreenTechLab. Finally, it is notable to mention that Promilist founders were featured by Forbes 30Under30 list in Greece.

Team & Why Us

Our founding team came together during a brainstorming session on an entrepreneurial ecosystem event. We began talking about the technical and engineering problems that the present weather routing systems have and how we can solve them. Some of our founders had prior entrepreneurial expertise while working for other tech businesses while others were employed in the maritime industry. Even though we delayed starting a start-up right away, the "seed" for our partnership had already been planted. Our team reunited after 2 years, and after all members had obtained more experience and exposure to the maritime and tech industries. After considering the available opportunities and the forthcoming challenges, we decided that this is the best time to pursue our vision.

Funding Needs

1. Start growing our team. Specifically, in order to scale up our startup, we plan to create at least 3-4 full-time job opportunities for the next year, requiring €80,000-€100,000 for a year 2. Cover Infrastructure and Software maintenance costs (Frontend Portal and Database) to accommodate our Core Service (Optimization algorithm). These costs are dependent on our service’s usage. ~ €25,000 for a year 3. Obtain access to additional data to crosscheck and benchmark our services. These costs are dependent on the data provider ~€10,000 for a year 4. Intensify our sales and business development efforts, by discovering and pursuing new sales channels (e.g. charterers, brokers etc) and/or purchasing relevant software to assist us ~€3,000.