There’s just five days to go to submit entries to The Captain’s Table, the Hong Kong-based global maritime start-up pitch competition.
Applications have already arrived from four continents for the unique tech contest with a cash prize of $20,000 on offer for the winner.
Despite the constraints of Covid-19 and having to go virtual this year, shipping’s answer to TV shows such as Shark’s Tank or Dragon’s Den, the remit of the contest has grown.
“We have expanded our ecosystem partners and brought on new companies to help support our startups via data access, free trials of digital products, media exposure, POCs, leadership programs and more,” commented Tabitha Logan, one of the co-founders of The Captain’s Table.
Into its second year, the competition has some new elements in 2020.
The organisers are working with key corporate sponsors on formulating key problem statements, which are set as mini-challenges to run concurrently with the competition.
“It is a chance for startups with existing capabilities to tackle specific industry problems and the chance to work with that corporate partner on it,” Logan explained.
In terms of applications received so far there has been no overriding themes, albeit organisers have noticed more companies with cyber risk and voyage optimisation backgrounds.
Ten finalists for the competition will be announced next month. They will go on a virtual bootcamp and mentorship program before the finals are held in Hong Kong in front a panel of high calibre judges at the end of November.
Singapore-based Portcast, a predicative analytics firm, won the inaugural Captain’s Table last November.
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