Co-founders of maritime digital consultancy start-up zero44 are (right to left) Friederike Hesse and Nils Obermann (source: zero44)
Berlin-based software company zero44 won backing from mari-tech venture capital investors Flagship Founders
Announcing the backing for the company on LinkedIn, Flagship Founders cited the challenge of an industry that is seeking to decarbonise while its emissions are still increasing.
“The goal to be CO2 neutral by 2050 is extremely challenging as emissions are still increasing instead of decreasing. Zero44 is addressing exactly this issue, by helping customers to make the best possible decisions around their CO2 emissions,” the post said.
On its website, zero44 said it had launched in January 2022 with the mission of offering digital services to help companies to decarbonise.
Among the services listed are “carbon monitoring and reporting based on the ship’s daily data, ’smart’ commercial voyage planning to reduce CO2 emissions and trusted data to agree on which charter party will bear the CO2 costs”.
The announcement of Flagship Founders’ backing came ahead of a week in which the EU is voting on elements that will be included in legislation to include shipping in the trading bloc’s emissions trading system (ETS) and IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) intercessional working grouip debating submissions on regulations related to shipping’s decarbonisation levels and deadline.
In addition to facing the requirement to at least halve emissions by 2050, shipping companies will be required to monitor and report their carbon emissions under IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) vessel rating regulation beginning 1 January 2023.
The digital startup zero44 said it will assist its customers with data recording, visualisation and strategic business consulting.
