Strategic partnerships, sustainable solutions and a startup spotlight
This is Gateway to Growth
From impactful strategic partnerships to insightful industry event key takeaways, this edition of Gateway to Growth brings you central learnings, new nuances to energy transition, a peak behind the curtains of our portfolio, and a whole lot more. Dive in and discover!
In 2021, we at Maersk Growth added the strategic partnership avenue to our offerings to accelerate the impact of innovation across Maersk. Since then, we have been guiding both business partners and startups through our strategic partnership program and proof-of-concept cycle to foster long-term partnerships and uncover a sustainable and agile path for development.
Bridging external innovation and internal excellence
Here’s our most recent Proof of Concept
Autonomous negotiations with Pactum AI
Pactum AI is an innovative AI-powered chat interface that revolutionizes procurement negotiations at scale. Backed by best-practice negotiation strategies, Pactum helps some of the world’s largest enterprises, including Maersk, negotiate supplier deals with greater efficiency, speed, and cost savings. By automating and streamlining supplier negotiations, Pactum enables businesses to save money and enhance their supplier relationships. It’s a technology company specializing in high-volume, low-cost agreement negotiations using artificial intelligence.
Pactum has been working closely with Maersk for two years to revolutionize supplier negotiations. Their AI-based system brings a human touch to these interactions by reaching out to suppliers, understanding their needs, and identifying win-win agreements. As Maersk’s trusted partner, Pactum’s product streamlines negotiations, saving time and generating greater value for both parties.
Here’s what we’ve learned attending events in Q1
Maersk Growth recently attended several significant events in spring 2024, including Hello Tomorrow in Paris, Energy Tech Summit in Bilbao, and Mashup in Malmö. Here are the 4 most compelling takeaways, particularly for investors and startups, with a focus on decarbonization and innovation in the ecosystem.
1. Promising Climate Tech Emerging Across the Ecosystem
Startups are leading the development of carbon management solutions, emphasising cross-industry collaboration. Investments in deep tech sectors like Carbon Management and Removal, Electrification, such as BatteryTech, and Quantum Computing are advancing environmental changes and decarbonisation efforts. Technologies such as carbon capture and alternative fuels are essential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
At the Energy Tech Summit in Bilbao, panellists discussed the importance of strategic investments in startups and grid flexibility technology. A speaker noted, "Batteries will be the new gold," highlighting battery technology's emerging in Europe. The Hello Tomorrow conference in Paris highlighted the carbon capture industry's opportunities and innovations in decarbonising industries. Discussions emphasised green hydrogen, infrastructure upgrades, and government support as critical for the energy transition.
2. Circular Economy Solutions across Supply Chains
Sustainability in supply chains is gaining momentum, driven by new EU scope 3 reporting requirements. Innovations promoting the circular economy, like recycling and repurposing technologies and reducing waste and carbon footprint, are all key enablers for this transition. At the Energy Tech Summit in Bilbao, Europe’s regulatory framework was praised for attracting recycling companies and circular material innovations.
At all events, digital transformation has been discussed as crucial for optimising logistics and reducing carbon footprints. Technologies like AI and IoT improve efficiency, crisis response, and sustainability in supply chains.
3. Collaboration, Policy Adaptation, and Navigating Economic Challenges
Startups must adapt to environmental policies. Collaboration among startups, investors, and companies drives scalable decarbonisation solutions. Strategic investments in technology and sustainability are necessary for resilience and success.
The Energy Tech Summit in Bilbao stressed the need for a robust regulatory framework and cybersecurity in grid technology integration. At Mashup Malmo, participants emphasised collaboration between corporate venture capital, venture capital, and startups for scalable innovations. Partnerships with universities and engaging students were highlighted as ways to enhance research capacities. Hello Tomorrow in Paris called for a unified Deep Tech ecosystem in Europe, similar to Silicon Valley. Despite rich resources, Europe’s fragmented ecosystem needs harmonisation of spinout terms, talent clusters, and diverse investor bases to reach its full potential.
4. Artificial Intelligence’s Potential and Challenges
Across the events, a significant focus was on the future of AI and its ethical implications. Discussions underscored the importance of responsible AI development, proactive decision-making, and the role of regulations in shaping its trajectory. Open-source AI emerged as a key topic, with its potential to foster transparency and reduce reliance on major tech players, while the need for cohesive AI strategies in Europe was emphasised. Education and advocacy were identified as critical in addressing public apprehensions about AI's impact on jobs, highlighting the need for a balanced approach to innovation and regulation.
AI's potential to optimise industries was a recurring theme. Innovations in AI-driven shelf management, runtime security, and automated services are simplifying data flows, enhancing decision-making, and improving operational efficiency across various sectors. Startups showcased groundbreaking technologies that are revolutionising industry practices and driving efficiency across all industries.
Find the full takeaway articles here👇🏼
Events we’ll attend
Our calendars and suitcases are packed, and we are ready to kick off spring the best way we know - with a whirlwind tour of the global climate and supply chain tech scene 🌎
From the Future of Supply Chain blooming in Atlanta to the NextRise taking off in Seoul, we're on a mission to connect with the leading startups and investors in climate tech and supply chain innovation.
With our scope, investing in Energy Transition startups and building bridges with Supply Chain Tech leaders through strategic partnerships, we're eager to expand our network and reconnect with familiar faces and future friends.
Will you be in Copenhagen for TechBBQ in September? So will our portfolio!
From September 10th-12th, we have invited our portfolio to Copenhagen to meet the teams from Maersk with whom they collaborate, introduce them to our local network, plant seeds to foster new collaborations, and not at least, bring them to TechBBQ, the largest Tech and Startup summit in Scandinavia!
Reach out if we should set up a connect!
Founder spotlight!
Meet Rachelle Snyder, the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Arrive, a technology company powering resale for leading brands and retailers. She and Ross Richmond founded Arrive in 2017, addressing the complex issue of returns with a novel solution: Returns to Recommerce™. As the company grows, its vision remains steadfast: a world without waste. Arrive continues to propel global recommerce adoption forward as the industry’s fastest, easiest and most profitable recommence solution.
Under Rachelle's leadership, Arrive has raised over $25 million in venture capital and won awards including Headless Commerce Solution of the Year 2024 and the 4th Most Innovative Retail Company 2022. She was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women of 2020, and Arrive has been featured in Forbes, NYT and WSJ.
Rachelle's entrepreneurial journey has taught her essential skills in raising capital, growing and managing a team, building a strong and competitive product offering, and ensuring that Arrive is solving a real problem for its clients. As a female founder and mother of two, she is dedicated to supporting women in their personal and professional endeavors, drawing strength from a robust support network. Back in March, we had a longer conversation with Rachelle, and a few other female founders from our portfolio on just that. Have a read here and learn more here!
Growth is Growing!
Meet our new team members!
Since March, we have been fortunate enough to onboard nothing less than four new colleagues to the team, and we are now thrilled to introduce them all to you.
Please meet Alex Smout, Marta Gonzalez, Namit Agrawal, and Olivia Lyng.
With 13 years of CVC experience from scientific software to automotive, Alex joined us as our new investment director, leading our investments within Energy Transition
“Maersk's ambition for net zero 2040 and its industry-leading position offer startups a huge opportunity to solve some of the world's most prominent climate challenges. Over the last seven years, Maersk Growth has built an incredible reputation as a Corporate Venture Capital investor, and demonstrated best practices in startup collaboration to deliver innovation. I'm excited to join the next step in our journey as we focus our investments on the most impactful decarbonisation startups around the world and help accelerate this transition.” Alex shares
Marta, who have joined our Strategic Business Innovation team, is a sustainability professional with over 14 years of experience. As an advocate for diversity in problem-solving, she firmly believes in the power of integrating various perspectives and disciplines to tackle complex challenges and bring about transformative change at scale – this including bringing in expertise and external innovation.
“As a fervent advocate for breaking down silos within organizations, I thrive on fostering a culture of innovation and agility. I firmly believe that navigating the green and just transition demands a paradigm shift, embracing innovation and a learning culture. That is why I am thrilled to be part of Maersk Growth, the global partner for external innovation at Maersk.” Says Marta
With a background navigating the intricacies of both startups and corporates, Namit will bring extensive knowledge on the dynamics in innovative technology to the Strategic Business Innovation team.
“In addition to keeping well-versed in the rapidly evolving warehouse automation and robotics sector, I am deeply interested in monitoring developments in decarbonisation and sustainability initiatives, particularly their integration into various logistics services, with a specific emphasis on the warehousing industry.” Namit shares
Olivia will join our Strategic Insights team to accelerate the pace of the startup ecosystem downloads we gather and present to our colleagues across Maersk. Olivia thrives when engaging with startups, founders and investors – which is lucky – because the most vital part of the role she will take on, is to inform our colleagues on the state of the ecosystem to define where we are going and suggest how we will get there.
"I've been deeply involved in the startup ecosystems since my university days, most recently at an early-stage VC. Joining Maersk Growth, I'm excited to now work with the ecosystem from a different angle and continue to build the bridge and gather insights that can drive early-impact innovation, accelerating progress for both startups and a pivotal player like Maersk." Says Olivia
Stay connected!
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Are you a startup working to solve the challenge of how to decarbonise logistics, or a supply chain tech startup looking to get in touch regarding a potential PoC collaboration with Maersk? Contact us via growth@maersk.com!