Just over a year after its launch, a 51% stake in OceanPass has been sold by Christian Bonfils-led Copenhagen Commercial Platform (CCP) to Denmark’s Weilbach, a provider of nautical charts and software.
OceanPass uses data on fuel use and sailing distances to generate a live overview of how individual vessels are performing and produces quarterly reports.
Weilbach plans to integrate the emissions reporting system into its digital logbook system, OneLog.
Martin Mikkelsen, director of business development at Weilbach, will become the new chief executive of OceanPass.
“This is a large step for Weilbach to become a leading provider for emission reporting,” he said.
“Together with the unique service OceanPass have and our Wendis OneLog we can offer a larger range of services in one platform.”
The idea behind OceanPass is that the regular performance updates give users the insight to know where they can improve and the time to react.
The tool can be used to monitor performance in emissions reporting regimes such as the Carbon Intensity Indicator, Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index, Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator, Poseidon Principles, Annual Efficiency Ratio and the Sea Cargo Charter.
The sale is a vote of confidence for the commercialisation of shipowner-founded tech. Many such offerings have faced obstacles in how to scale the product and get it into the hands of customers.
Christian Bonfils, chief executive of commercial manager CCP, said OceanPass needed a specialised partner to take it further.
“OceanPass started as a service to our clients, but our ambitions for the service have grown and we need a good partner with more IT expertise. Weilbach brings that and their OneLog platform has already more than 4,500 vessels,” Bonfils told TradeWinds.
CCP wanted emissions reports that were easy for commercial people to understand, but realised such reports did not yet exist.
“As we realised that there was no real industry standard, we have engaged with owners, charterers and banks to understand what they want to see,” Bonfils said.
“We have during the last 15 months developed software to make onboard vessel reporting simple to use for the crew; we have built-in check functions to avoid incorrect data, and we have a very simple and illustrative report or web portal that gives owners, charterers and banks a very quick overview of how their vessels are performing quarter after quarter.”
Bonfils hopes that OceanPass will receive much wider adoption and industry acceptance with Weilbach as a partner. It will possibly target banks as a new customer base.
“Our advantage is that we have designed for non-technical people to get an overview, our industry needs that and we need a standard — we are therefore in dialogue with banks to make OceanPass an industry standard. That is our overall goal,” he said.
The tool also comprises verification processes. OceanPass’ proprietary algorithm crosschecks AIS data for voyage distances and bunker delivery note data for fuel consumption. There is also the option for verification and certification by a classification society.
CCP is backed by BW Group via its BW Investment arm and Danish owner Weco Shipping.
