Yahoo News Maritime tech firm Ceto hopes to tap into lucrative South Korean market
A Newcastle data analytics company is hoping to tap into overseas markets after taking part in an official trade mission with companies from South Korea.
Hoults Yard based Ceto was one of seven UK firms offering innovative technologies to the maritime sector who pitched their services to five of South Korea’s largest shipbuilding and ship owning corporations. Ceto supplies data analytics to improve shipping industry processes, by capturing and analysing data to predict machinery breakdowns at sea.
The company got the chance to join the mission as part of the Government-funded UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme, which helps tech scaleups to explore and secure commercial opportunities in 11 markets across the Asia Pacific region. Business development consultancy Intralink, which delivers the UK-APAC programme for the Government, selected the companies to participate in the event.
It took place in London, with each company given the chance to pitch its technologies to Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, HMM and Hyundai Glovis. The companies then took part in a question and answer session and networking sessions to take discussions further forward.
The event was part of a broader inward maritime trade mission, organised by the British Embassy in Seoul and the UK’s Department for Business and Trade. The maritime industry is strategically important to South Korea with its shipbuilding sector alone forecast to be worth £30.1bn by 2030.
While it is making huge investments in the digitalisation and decarbonisation of the field, it lags behind regional rivals China and Japan in the development of smart ships and smart ports, providing opportunities for companies like Ceto. Six months ago Ceto raised £1.5m in seed funding in a round led by Howden Ventures with participation from Chaucer Group, Founders Factory, and existing investors from the Business Investors Group.
Gavin Cleary, head of the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme at Intralink, said: “Pitch events such as this offer a unique opportunity for some of the most innovative UK tech scaleups to introduce their solutions to potential partners and customers from Asia Pacific. We run them regularly for UK companies involved in the UK-APAC Tech Growth Programme and they’ve proved successful in helping to spark commercial relationships between the UK companies and carefully selected corporations from APAC.
“Korea is committed to building an even stronger presence in the maritime sector and it is major Korean companies, such as those attending this latest pitch event, that will deliver this.”
