Why Maritime Innovation Fails to Scale | Venture Acceleration Alliance

What separates organisations that talk about innovation from those actually making it happen? In this special edition of Innovation to Impact, we explore the Venture Acceleration Alliance Startup Collaboration Benchmark and what its findings tell us about the relationship between startups, corporates and ports across the maritime industry. Joining us are Oscar van Veen, Director of Innovation and Digital Port Performance at the Port of Rotterdam, and Mare Straetmans, entrepreneur, investor and startup ecosystem builder. Together, we discuss why collaboration with startups matters, what successful organisations are doing differently and why getting from a promising pilot to real-world implementation remains one of the industry's biggest challenges. In this episode, we explore: ⚓ Why maritime needs a benchmark for startup collaboration 🚀 What separates looking innovative from actually delivering innovation 📈 Why successful pilots still struggle to reach scale ⏱️ Why speed and access to decision-makers are crucial for startups 🏗️ The role ports can play in creating stronger innovation ecosystems 🤝 Why collaboration across organisations matters more than working in isolation 💡 What makes a startup attractive to major maritime organisations 📊 How the Venture Acceleration Alliance benchmark is evolving 🔄 Why sharing failed pilots could help the entire industry innovate faster One of the biggest questions emerging from the conversation is whether maritime's innovation challenge is changing. Finding startups is becoming easier. The harder question is: can the industry actually adopt and scale what they create? Oscar and Mare also tackle our traditional final question: If you could ban one piece of technology forever, what would it be — and why? Watch the full conversation to hear what the latest Venture Acceleration Alliance findings could mean for the future of maritime innovation. Learn more about the Venture Acceleration Alliance and its benchmark: www.ventureaccelerationalliance.com Subscribe for more conversations exploring how new technologies move from innovation into impact across maritime and other safety-critical industries. #InnovationToImpact #MaritimeInnovation #VentureAccelerationAlliance #Startups #OpenInnovation #PortOfRotterdam #Innovation #Maritime #StartupCollaboration #SafetytechAccelerator