Ahoy! There's a new sailor on board! The Indian startup revolution is just about to witness a sea of change. For years now, startups have struggled with finding the right mentors for when they need an expert opinion on the challenges they face on a day to day basis, finding investors during the seed stages, funding, regulations and even public outreach. Thus, startup accelerators that provide all this under one cohort program are indispensable for business analysis.
Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, has recently launched its very own startup accelerator, called 'OceanPro' and is inviting applications from startups for the same. Anyone can apply, including individuals as well as business analysts.
The Juggernaut
Maersk, a multinational company founded and headquartered in Denmark, is the market leader in the shipping, supply chain and logistics industry. It operates in over 130 countries and employs a workforce of roughly around 76,000 people. Currently, Maersk.com is one of the world's largest B2B transaction sites, with roughly an average hourly revenue of 1.3 million US Dollars.
The company seeks to simplify its customers' supply chains and to ship around the world, using the power of business analysis.
OceanPro in a nutshell
Maersk has launched its startup accelerator programme, OceanPro, to accelerate technology in India.
Maersk Group CEO Soren Skou said recently during his visit to the Bangalore center that they recognize India's potential and talent in the digital space and that they are looking to reinvent the wheel with the logistics industry, leveraging on this wide pool of talent.
The programme, mainly in the silicon city and startup hub, Bengaluru, seeks to collaborate with startups with the aim of simplifying supply chain. It's a 120-day programme, taking place in the co-location space of Maersk's digital centre in Bengaluru. With OceanPro, startups looking to connect with the shipping, supply chain and logistics industry's who's who can do so easily, as well have real customer interaction, while leveraging on the talent and insights provided by Maersk. The icing on the cake : Maersk may provide funding to companies they deem fit. This is also one of its kind opportunity for business analysts to sharpen their business analysis skills in a precocious setup.
Essentials and features of OceanPro
One of the aims of setting up OceanPro is to bring about changes in the logistics industry, by incorporating the latest technologies of Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT), Advanced Text analytics, FinTech and augmented and virtual reality, for the benefit of the industry, making it smarter, intelligent and more efficient. Today, with AI and FinTech revolutionizing every industry and the way we operate, it becomes important the logistics industry too realizes this to step up and be an even player.
So far, the shipping giant has invited eight startups to join and participate in the interactive programme, viz., Dhruv, KrypC, LinkedDots, La Vela Pictures, Unido Labs, zasti, Inatrix and MintM. The company also aims to form partnerships with universities, venture capitalists, investors and other accelerators. Also, Maersk has a sponsorship program for two Master of Technology fellows, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science, for developing leading business analysis solutions. This is a golden opportunity for business analysts to take their career to the next level.
The program is aimed at leveraging the power of business analysis, to introduce agility into the supply chain ecosystem by making it more responsive and mining out hidden insights that are useful.
Startups that are interested and are a good fit can apply soon as the invitation to apply is open, if you can commit for four months, are willing to adapt and customize and receptive to learning.
Analytics
Imarticus
January 26, 2023
