This week, seven UK scaleups offering innovative technologies for the maritime sector pitched their offerings to five of South Korea’s largest shipbuilding and ship owning corporations during a trade mission to the UK.
We organised this event as part of the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme, the initiative we’re running on behalf of the government to help tech scaleups to explore and secure commercial opportunities in 11 markets across the Asia Pacific region, including South Korea.
Taking place in London on 17 April, each company was given the chance to pitch its technologies to Korean maritime and logistics giants HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, HMM and Hyundai Glovis. The companies then took part in Q&A and networking sessions to take discussions further forward.
The participating UK companies were:
The event was part of a broader inward maritime trade mission, organised by the British Embassy in Seoul and the UK’s Department for Business & Trade.
The maritime industry is strategically important to South Korea, with its shipbuilding sector alone forecast to be worth KRW 44 trillion (£30.1 billion) by 2030. While it is already a global player and is making huge investments in the digitalisation and decarbonisation of the field, it lags regional rivals China and Japan in the development of smart ships and smart ports. The country’s corporations are keen to collaborate with western companies offering technologies which can help strengthen its position in the sector.
Richard Newnham, Chief Customer Experience Officer at Ninety Percent of Everything, said: “We were excited to be selected to participate in the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme, and to have the opportunity to pitch to such prestigious Korean companies.
“Our commitment to maritime excellence through our next-generation platform, OpenOcean STUDIO, aligns perfectly with the forward-thinking approach of the Korean shipping industry. Engaging with representatives at the event gave us valuable insights and opportunities for collaboration at a time when the industry is increasingly embracing digitalisation to elevate operations and enhance sustainability.
“We look forward to nurturing these connections and advancing discussions that will mutually benefit our organisations and contribute to the growth and sustainability of the maritime industry.”
“Our recent partnership with South Korean firm RIMS and our participation in events like this demonstrate our dedication to supporting organisations in South Korea and beyond as they strive to achieve the highest safety and compliance standards."
Gavin Cleary, Head of the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme at Intralink, said: “Pitch events such as this offer a unique opportunity for some of the most innovative UK tech scaleups to introduce their solutions to potential partners and customers from Asia Pacific. We run them regularly for UK companies involved in the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme and they’ve proved successful in helping to spark commercial relationships between the UK companies and carefully-selected corporations from APAC.”
He continued: “Korea is committed to building an even stronger presence in the maritime sector and it is major Korean companies, such as those attending this latest pitch event, that will deliver this. We were happy to showcase some of the most exciting maritime tech being developed in the UK and the interest from the Korean companies was clear from the outset.”
The UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme provides support for UK tech scaleups to expand in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Our teams on the ground in Asia Pacific can identify participants’ business opportunities, provide market entry advice and help them sell their products, forge partnerships and raise investment.
The programme – backed jointly by the UK Government’s Department for Business & Trade and Department for Science, Innovation & Technology – is aimed at scaleups throughout the UK with significant international growth potential.
For more information and to apply to join the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme, visit www.intralinkgroup.com/tgp
You can also contact our Programme Manager, Tom Miller, at tom.miller@intralinkgroup.com