Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption among maritime tech startups continues to grow in 2025, with 45 per cent now reporting using it, up from 27.5 per cent the year before.
Flagship Founders has released new insights in its 2025 edition of the “Global Maritime Tech Startup Map,” providing an updated overview of maritime tech startups and scaleups worldwide.
Now in its third edition, the map features 176 companies, up from 149 last year.
New entrants were added, while others were removed for no longer meeting the criteria, including six that were acquired or merged.
However, uptake varies widely by category. “Condition & Maintenance” leads with 72 per cent AI integration, while in “Communications & Information Management,” 90 per cent of startups founded in the last three years use AI, indicating rapid transformation in that segment (56 per cent overall in the category).
By contrast, adoption remains lower in areas like “Procurement” (28 per cent), “Ports & Docks” (40 per cent), and “Crewing & Crew Management” (33 per cent), suggesting either greater implementation challenges or untapped innovation potential.
READ: Sirius Insight, Cambridge Pixel launch AI maritime surveillance solution
Over the past 12 months, since the 2024 edition of the map, maritime tech startups have reportedly raised $234 million in disclosed funding rounds. That’s an increase of about 73 per cent compared to the previous year, when the total reached around $135 million.
Flagship Founders attributed this increase to a few major later-stage funding rounds, with Orca AI alone having raised $72.5 million in a Series B round recently.
READ: LR, Microsoft to advance nuclear tech in maritime using AI
Fabian Feldhaus, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Flagship Founders, said: “We’re pleased to see the maritime tech ecosystem evolving so strongly, especially in terms of AI integration. The key question now is whether companies are ready to adopt these solutions and truly modernise their processes systematically.
“AI-driven startups must demonstrate real value and impact. If both sides work together effectively, the industry could make a genuine leap forward, potentially skipping over some of the painful digitalisation steps other sectors struggled with for decades.”
In March, Marcura, a digital maritime solutions corporation, acquired Shipster, a start-up specialising in AI-powered document intelligence. Marcura had already implemented AI-powered automation across its offerings, with AI agents helping clients automate Charter Party interpretation, gain predictive insights for operational decisions, and identify contractual risks.
