Scorpa's Tech @ Sea

Oceanis Tech: Pioneering Digital Innovation in Ship Finance

3–5 minutes

Image Credit: oceanis.io

The global shipping industry is notoriously fragmented and opaque particularly in financing. Smaller ship-owners often face difficulty accessing diverse funding. Financiers, in turn, lack standardized insights to assess vessel-backed credit efficiently. Traditional workflows are heavy in paperwork, encumbered by slow decision-making, and subject to inconsistent data resulting in elevated costs and prolonged timelines. 

Oceanis emerged to address these issues by digitizing and standardizing the finance value chain, introducing clarity, speed, and accessibility. Oceanis was founded in 2019 by Maximilian Otto and Erlend Sommerfelt Hauge. In its evolved form as Oceanis Tech (launched April 2025), leadership includes Federica Maiorano (Co-Founder & CEO) and Georg Maximilian Kuhlmann (Co-Founder & COO), a maritime finance veteran with nearly two decades of industry experience across logistics, ship financing, and technical management.

Oceanis Tech serves all maritime finance stakeholders, ship-owners, brokers, financiers, and investors via a rich toolkit of features:

  • Fleet Overview: Build real or virtual fleets; access vessel specs and financial metrics.
  • Projects Overview: Monitor potential S&P candidates, refinancing needs, and compare vessels across segments.
  • Financial Modelling: Flexible cash-flow models with both streamlined templates and advanced scenario analysis deliver reliable IRR projections.
  • Loan Oracle: AI-powered tool providing real-time indications of financing attractiveness and matching financiers.
  • Market Intelligence: Instant access to OPEX, drydock costs, earnings, valuations (FMV, newbuilding, parity), scrap rates, indices, and financing stats. All collated in one dashboard.
  • Emissions Data: Continuously updated ESG metrics vital for modern financing and regulatory preparedness.

This platform empowers ship-owners to evaluate funding options, model investment scenarios, benchmark against peers, and streamline decision-making all in one digital interface. Financiers gain standardization, improved deal flow, and better risk insight. Brokers can also benefit through the ability to manage project pipelines more efficiently.

Oceanis Tech operates as a cloud-based maritime finance platform that integrates vessel data, market intelligence, financial modelling, and AI driven matchmaking into a single interface. Users, ranging from ship-owners to brokers and financiers begin by creating digital fleet profiles and entering project-specific parameters such as vessel type, trade routes, or refinancing needs. The platform’s cash-flow modelling tools then generate detailed investment scenarios, while the AI-powered Loan Oracle instantly assesses financing attractiveness and matches projects with potential lenders worldwide. Real time market data including freight indices, vessel valuations, operating expenses, and ESG metrics are continuously updated, enabling precise benchmarking and regulatory compliance checks. This streamlined workflow replaces fragmented, paper-heavy processes with a transparent, data-backed decision environment, ultimately accelerating funding timelines and improving the quality of maritime investment decisions.

During COVID-19, the shipping boom prompted Oceanis to pivot: from pure matchmaking to robust analytics. By April 2025, Oceanis Tech had launched its AI tools and real-time valuation modules to meet shifting market needs. Early users have appreciated the platform’s ability to surface fast, transparent financing terms described internally as a “Tinder for shipping” model facilitating trust and efficiency.

Oceanis Tech has built strong strategic relationships to expand its reach and credibility within the maritime finance ecosystem. In 2020, it was selected as one of only ten international startups to join Plug and Play’s Fintech Europe program, gaining direct access to global financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, UniCredit, and Deutsche Bank. This exposure not only validated the platform’s potential but also opened pathways to collaboration with leading financiers. In 2024, Oceanis Tech further strengthened its market position by becoming a portfolio company of Signal Ventures, part of The Signal Group, which connects it with a network of maritime technology innovators and industry leaders. These partnerships have enabled Oceanis Tech to secure a client base that includes ship-owners, brokers, and institutional investors seeking efficient, data-driven solutions for vessel financing and investment.

Oceanis Tech stands out as a transformative force in maritime finance, addressing long-standing industry challenges of opacity, inefficiency, and fragmented data through its fully integrated digital platform. Its proven ability to connect stakeholders with global funding opportunities, backed by strong partnerships with major financial institutions, underscores its role as both a technology innovator and a trusted industry collaborator. While adoption in the conservative shipping sector may take time, Oceanis Tech’s comprehensive toolkit, ESG integration, and scalable infrastructure position it as a pivotal enabler for more transparent, efficient, and sustainable ship financing in the years ahead.

References

Contributor: Ariana Tri Asti
Reviewer : Imam Buchari, David Ratner

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