Wärtsilä launches innovation contest for ideas to digitalise the marine industry
Wärtsilä launches an innovation contest, Wärtsilä Marine Mastermind, aimed at start-up companies and entrepreneurs, in connection with the start-up event Slush. The purpose of the contest is to find new and unique digital services for the marine industry. The contest is open for existing companies as well as for aspiring entrepreneurs. The winner of the contest will get to further develop the idea together with Wärtsilä’s experts and Shift Actions, specialised in agile concept and product development, the company said in its press release.
Wärtsilä is a globally known pioneer in the utilisation of digital technologies in the marine and energy industries. With the innovation contest, Wärtsilä wishes to build closer relationships with international start-up companies and entrepreneurs and discover interesting digital business opportunities together. The aim is to develop a new value adding digital service or solution in collaboration with start-ups to support the growth of Wärtsilä’s customers’ business. The winner also gets a chance to become part of the highly international marine business.
The contest will start on 26 October 2015. Wärtsilä will tell more about the contest on the stage at Slush’s Clean Solutions event in Helsinki on 12 November 2015, after which Wärtsilä will begin accepting submissions for the contest.
The winner of the contest will get to experience a 30-day agile “Lean Innovation Lab” product or service development sprint supported by Shift Actions. The sprint is focused on the challenges of innovation, development of the concept for commercialisation, its prototyping as well as the business plan and its implementation plan. The goal is to use the concrete idea in the future together with Wärtsilä.
Submissions can be sent to Wärtsilä by 31 December 2015. The winner of the contest will be chosen by an international jury established by Wärtsilä. The jury includes Wärtsilä’s experts as well as distinguished representatives of the marine industry media, Wärtsilä’s customer and capital investor as well as star-up incubator.
The best ideas will be showcased to the jury in February. The winner will be announced in March 2016.
