The recent publication of two maritime technology landscape maps, clustered with hundreds of logos, shows how fragmented this business is despite significant consolidation over the past couple of years. The maritime industry is undergoing a rapid technological transformation, with AI emerging as a driving force behind it. Recent publications, such as the Global Maritime Tech Startup Map 2025 by Flagship Founders and SkySail Advisors’ Maritime Technology Landscape, highlight the explosive growth of companies providing tech solutions for the sector as well as belated consolidation in what is a fragmented market with a lack of standardisation. Flagship Founders published the Global Maritime Tech Startup Map 2025 earlier this month. It offers an overview of the current global landscape of maritime tech startups and scaleups. The third edition of the map now features 176 startups, up from 149 the year before. Some have been added, while others have been removed after no longer meeting the selection criteria. The startups are exclusively or primarily active in the maritime industry, and were founded in 2015 or later. Their core offering is software, not hardware, and they must be independent companies. They can’t be a spinoff, a merger, or acquired by a bigger firm. The map shows a quite expected growth in the number of startups working with AI technology. In 2025, 45% of all featured startups report using AI in their offering, up from 27.5% the previous year. Click to enlarge The condition and maintenance category of the map is an AI stand-out, with 72% of startups integrating AI into their products, more than in any other category. In the communications and information management category, 90% of startups founded within the past three years use AI, which will most probably increase the use of AI in the segment. Currently, 56% of the startups in this category integrate AI. Other categories, such as procurement (28%), ports and docks (40%), and crewing and crew management (33%), use AI to a lesser extent. This may suggest that these fields are either more difficult to address with AI or that the potential for its use is far from exhausted. Christopher Aversano, partnership lead at Wood Mackenzie and host of The Last Dinosaur podcast, sees AI as the key to maritime tech development. “Key areas of focus include data management, port operations, crew welfare, and sustainability. All categories will take advantage of AI. The winners will be those who use AI in a way that incorporates users’ data,” he explains in a conversation with Splash Extra. The map points to Europe as the dominant hub for maritime startups, attributed to the proximity to industry talent and supportive governmental and industry investment policies. But Tabitha Logan, director of projects at Hong Kong bulker owner and operator Cetus Maritime, and co-founder of The Captain’s Table, says Asia and the Middle East have some exciting developments too. “We are seeing an increase in solutions coming out of Asia. There are a number of large Asian CVCs which are actively investing in the maritime sectors, including MOL, NYK, China Merchants, Swire, COSCO, etc., which will be driving this forward,” she says. Logan is also fully behind AI and machine learning in the voyage optimisation and predictive maintenance space. Another company did a similar map last month. SkySail Advisors announced its Maritime Technology Landscape, which keeps up with the latest in private equity, M&A, and vent