PortXL - Experts & Thought Leaders

PortXL, the world's first maritime start-up accelerator, is proud to announce its 2025 cohort, marking a significant milestone as the organisation celebrates 10 years of fostering innovation and driving technological advancements in the maritime industry. Since its inception in 2015, PortXL has been at the forefront of connecting start-ups and scale-ups with industry-renowned corporations, investors, and mentors, creating an ecosystem for growth and collaboration. PortXL’s acceleration program The 2025 acceleration program received a high number of applications from around the globe Over the last ten years, 132 start-ups have been part of PortXL’s acceleration program, boasting an impressive 83% survival rate. Over €191+ million of funding has been raised by its alumni. The 2025 acceleration program received a high number of applications from around the globe. After a rigorous selection process, PortXL has chosen a diverse group of innovative start-ups poised to tackle some of the industry's most pressing challenges. Need for innovation and community "Celebrating our 10th anniversary in 2025 is a testament to the need for innovation and the incredible community we've built," says Christel Pullens, Director a.i. of PortXL. Christel Pullens adds, "The maritime industry is undergoing a profound transformation, and our 2025 cohort represents the next wave of pioneers who will shape its future. We are excited to support them on their journey and connect them with our partners." 100-day program The 2025 cohort will participate in an intensive 100-day program designed to scale their businesses The 2025 cohort will participate in an intensive 100-day program designed to scale their businesses, refine their solutions, and secure strategic partnerships. Throughout the program, they will benefit from mentorship and tailored support, as well as opportunities to pilot their technologies with partners in PortXL’s ecosystem, such as the Port of Rotterdam, GTT, Dutch Ministry of Defence, and the Municipality of Rotterdam. The PortXL team and its partners are confident that the 2025 cohort will contribute to a more sustainable, resilient, and efficient maritime industry. 2025 PortXL start-up and scale-up The 2025 PortXL start-up and scale-up acceleration program's cohort consists of: 13 Mari Amphitrite Ayrton Energy FibriTech Flyability Hydrogenium NanoSieve SungreenH2 Newlight Blue – Wildcard

Dutch maritime start-up accelerator - PortXL presented its 2024 cohort at the RDM, the Rotterdam space for innovative companies, technology education, high-quality test facilities and field labs.  Ten start-ups and scale-ups presented themselves and were connected to partners, mentors and members of the Rotterdam and Dutch innovation ecosystem, that will assist them in the coming months. PortXL’ s partners and stakeholders Mitja Caboni, Acceleration Manager at PortXL introduced the new cohort and Linda Treuman, Community Manager, assigned mentors to them at the Matchmaking Monday mentor lunch session. Several PortXL alumni shared their experiences with the new cohort. Later in the day, representatives of PortXL’ s partners and other stakeholders also joined in to ‘meet and greet’ and learn about the new technologies.  Innovators to the PortXL programme For PortXL’s team this was the conclusion of months of gathering industry questions and problems For the partners and PortXL’s team this was the conclusion of months of gathering industry questions and problems, and finding and evaluating start-ups and scale-ups to match these challenges. In the coming months the innovators will go through the programme with the goal of collaborating with industry players, pilot projects, investments and more. Christel Pullens, Director at PortXL, says: "We are proud and excited to welcome these ten innovators to the PortXL programme and ecosystem and look forward to guiding them to both a higher level of maturity and to collaborations and customers." Partners Since 2015, PortXL has facilitated the growth of more than 120 start-up and scale-up companies. Working in close cooperation with its industry partners – lead partners - Port of Rotterdam and Van Oord, City of Rotterdam, Damen Shipyards, GTT and MINDbase – PortXL’s range of focus concentrates on the sustainable maritime, energy, logistics, and even defence sectors.  The 10 start-ups/scale-ups Akros Energy Carbon Blue CL Circular Seadar Fjuel EME HalioGen Power Omniwind SEAO2 Nauti

The PortXL community gathered at the RDM Innovation Dock to celebrate the achievements of the 2022 cohort. The solutions of the 13 start-up companies vary from flywheel designs originally meant for space operations to offshore wind turbine floaters that double as hydrogen storage. The goal of the PortXL acceleration programme is to build collaborations between corporates and start- and scale-ups to accelerate innovation. More than 10 collaborations were signed to continue working with these innovators and more to come in the following months. Highlighting future collaborations Representatives from the Port of Rotterdam Authority, Van Oord, Gemeente Rotterdam, Shell, Damen, Boskalis, Ampelmann, InnovationQuarter, Deltares, SPEED, and Provincie Zuid-Holland joined to sign collaborations. What an exciting ride it has been. I’m really proud of the achievements that have been presented" Hedi Visscher, Director PortXL: “What an exciting ride it has been. I’m really proud of the achievements that have been presented. The development curve of all the companies has consistently grown and together with our partners in the maritime industry collaborations have been signed.” Surrounding marine environment The 13 companies that participated: CleanSubSea, Australia: Their Envirocart™ System enables the in-water removal, capture, containment and filtration of marine biofouling from a vessel’s hull without damaging the antifouling paint or polluting the surrounding marine environment. No fuel or time is wasted driving to a dry dock location. QuinteQ, Netherlands: Flywheel energy storage technology based on Boeing developments that realises up to a fifteen-fold improvement on energy storage, applicable in energy systems and grids worldwide, and returning more than 50 financial returns to investors. They use advanced materials with high tensile strength to allow them to experience energy density improvements that far outpace breakthroughs in battery technologies. Ensemble Analytics, UK: Platform for ports that assimilates data and produces detailed advice for real time decision making on workforce allocation, training and investment. Efficient decision making can turn vessels around 8% faster, reducing emissions in port and improving local air quality. Conexbird, Finland: Vibration analysis hardware, supported by a software component, designed for mounting on container spreaders, and able to withstand the harsh conditions spreaders are subjected to. Mathclick, Italy: AI based solutions to interpret and forecast aquatic data. Finsulate, Netherlands: Revolutionary antifouling product, no paint needed. Instead, an environmentally-friendly physical adhesive barrier is applied to the hull with a 5 year expected lifetime. Skygauge, Canada: The most stable drone users will ever see, with patented thrust-vectoring technology. Perfect for safe industrial inspections and ultrasonic testing. Psiori, Germany: Creates Crane AI, which provides 3D scans of the inventory and environment and cameras detecting the position of the load. Their technology allows the crane operator to avoid mistakes or train for special occurrences. DecisionHall, Netherlands: Assembles a corporation of stakeholders with global reach who employ the latest Digital Engineering techniques to significantly reduce the risk, cost, and time required to run complex sustainability and climate resilience projects. Rombit Studio, Belgium: Co-creates innovative and sustainable digital products which create value and increase efficiency for their customers. By applying digitalisation and predictive analytics technology, the company connects devices and platforms to existing infrastructure. Noble Gas Systems, United Stated: Focuses on developing safe and lightweight compressed gas storage systems. Recently, the company demonstrated its latest generation of conformable gas tanks, which can be configured into existing vehicle architectures. MayMaan, United States: Creates engine technology that is fueled by 70% water and 30% ethanol. Their technology is designed to systematically decrease operational costs and significantly reduce the carbon footprint. GBMS, Netherlands: Focuses on developing systems that can reduce the number of containers lost at sea. They develop warning systems by understanding ship motions, physics, software, and sensor technology development. 12toZero, Netherlands: Developing a unique floating wind foundation specifically designed to combine buoyancy and hydrogen storage in a single structure. The combination of these functions in a single platform provides that basis for a reliable hydrogen supply for the decarbonisation of marine applications and port-based industries.