Marina Ahoy Ltd. has won the Wärtsilä Marine Mastermind innovation contest, launched by Wärtsilä in connection with the Slush start-up event in October 2015. The company, which hails from Estonia, is developing a customer service touchpoint for marinas and a convenience tool for sailors. The innovative tool offers sailors and marinas a real-time connection that helps automate routine tasks and can therefore enable marinas to operate around the clock.
The aim of the contest was to find fresh, unique ideas for digital services that could bring value to the marine industry. The winners get the chance to develop their idea further together with Wärtsilä’s experts and Shift Actions, a company specialized in agile concept and product development. The winner also gets a chance to become part of the highly international marine business.
“The overall quality of finalists was really high, and the decision was made mainly based on two key factors: innovativeness – especially potential for business disruption – and which entry would most benefit from the development sprint organised by Wärtsilä and Shift Actions,” says Tero Hottinen, General Manager, Business Innovation at Wärtsilä Services, who was in charge of the innovation contest. “Marina Ahoy’s offering has strong potential to become a successful commercial product, and it was also seen as something that benefits from exactly this kind of approach. The solution Marina Ahoy is developing for leisure business could very well fit the industrial shipping as well, and that will be the focus within Lean Innovation Lab.”