Wärtsilä Voyage, part of the Finnish technology group Wärtsilä, has completed an investment in Marindows, a Japanese company delivering an open digital platform for Japan’s marine industry. Both Marindows and Wärtsilä Voyage share a common vision of digitalisation as a means to accelerating decarbonisation and efficiency in the global marine industry, making them a perfect fit for collaboration. The move will also serve to strengthen Wärtsilä Voyage’s commitment to the Japanese market.

Together, Marindows and Wärtsilä Voyage will be creating significant value for the Japanese market through their collaboration, which will include the areas of vessel optimisation and autonomy. Safer, greener and more efficient operations are some of the benefits both companies set to bring to the market by reinforcing synergies and leveraging a digital ecosystem of applications that run on board and ashore.

“It’s a great pleasure to have Wärtsilä Voyage as the first overseas partner collaborating with Marindows and participating in our project. Marindows also welcomes Wärtsilä’s strong commitment to the Japanese market, which is one of the largest markets of domestic ocean transport in the world. However, this market has faced complex challenges such as a shortage of manpower and faced some obstacles in supporting sustainable shipping,” said Yasumasa Suetsugu, president, Marindows. “We provide the solutions to overcome these challenges through digital transformation (DX) and we’re very excited to work together with Wärtsilä Voyage to add new value. Starting with DX, Marindows believes both companies can do more to create a bright maritime future and contribute to a sustainable world.”

Founded in March 2021, Marindows focuses on the development of a marine digital platform, linking edge computing onboard ships with cloud services and shore-based applications to provide a range of maritime specific services to both seafarers and vessel operators. Its disruptive approach to digitalisation is a perfect fit for Wärtsilä Voyage’s digital portfolio, which includes innovative technology solutions to reduce carbon emissions and enhance autonomous shipping. Together, this collaboration will create great value and help the Japanese market decarbonise and move towards autonomy.

“We are incredibly excited by the opportunity that this collaboration with Marindows brings. We are deeply committed to the Japanese market, and this is an important step towards establishing and growing our presence there,” said Sean Fernback, president, Wärtsilä Voyage and Executive Vice President, Wärtsilä. “We can accelerate new value creation and technology adoption by supporting Marindows with our advanced platform and suite of technologies. At Wärtsilä Voyage, we’re proud of our solid digital portfolio which supports the acceleration of maritime digitalisation, cascading the positive effect on the whole shipping industry, the planet and the people.”