German shiptech venture capital firm Flagship Founders has launched Sealenic, a new AI-focused start-up, a solution it describes as “helping teams ashore and onboard find and interpret information”.
The start-up joins a stable of four previous digitally focused maritime tech firms launched by Flagship Founders, namely, Kaiko Systems, Arinto, Tilla Technologies and Zero44.
Flagship Founders sees Sealenic as an AI-powered virtual assistant for the shipping industry or a Google Search for shipping.
Flagship Founders was launched in 2020 and has backing from Auerbach Schifffahrt founder Lucius Bunk, fellow German shipowner Reederi F Laeisz, Philipp Ahrenkiel, and venture capital firms Rescape and Startup Ventures.
Reederei F Laeisz is a first-trial customer of Selenic along with Harren Ship Management and Fairplay Towage.
They will be testing the AI assistant before a larger launch into the shipping industry later in the year.
The Sealenic system is described as being able to instantly access company data, as well as publicly available safety and operational information from checklists and manuals, in addition to class and international rules and regulations.
The start-up is being led by founder and managing director Billel Ridelle, who is responsible for building on the software’s information retrieval and management platform that will make it as easy to find information.
Like many AI tools emerging in the shipping industry Sealenic will be utilising large language models, which will make its interface familiar to users.
“Nobody wants to trawl through emails or various documents every day to find important information. AI finally makes this unnecessary,” said Ridelle.
“However, the technology must be integrated into a software solution in such a way that its strengths are utilised to the full, while full data security is guaranteed. Sealenic will offer exactly that and thus set new standards in information management in the maritime industry.”
