Searoutes drops the anchor in Marseille with its solution for optimized ship routing

The start-up calculates the greenest and most economical route

Shipping routes will soon have their CO2 weight. This data, now just as relevant as the price of transport, will be available in a few months' time and is likely to influence the choices of manufacturers and traders. Born in Hamburg, the start-up Searoutes has anchored in Marseille and is developing within the ZeBox incubator of CMA CGM. As a bonus, its vision of the eco-calculator has earned it the title of the winner of the first edition of the Smartport Challenge launched by the Port of Marseille-Fos. Pierre Garreau, founding president of Searoutes, is very satisfied with the local welcome. Provence Promotion, the economic development agency of Marseille Provence metropolis, has opened the doors of the institutional, financial and economic ecosystem to it.

Ships emit 7% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. By 2050, this share will increase to 17%, ahead of air transport. A subject taken up by Pierre Garreau, a Centralian engineer. At 35, this serial entrepreneur had already spent several lives in Florida and Los Angeles, before returning to Europe via Hamburg where he began to develop Searoutes, his fourth start-up. "We want to become the Google Map of the maritime sector by processing data transmitted via AIS antennas, the automatic ship identification system. We aggregate the information of each boat and its specificities (speed, heading...), the weather data (tide, wind, wave height, direction...). This allows us to plot the real route. We then calculate the performance and CO2 emissions per trip," explains Pierre Garreau. Searoutes' ambition is to offer the greenest roads possible. "This tool will reduce CO2 emissions by 15% or more," he adds. After a year of discussions with CMA CGM, Searoutes, which already has about thirty customers (Royal Carribbean, Bernhard Schulte, Dream Line, Engie...), decided to move to Marseille to get closer to the shipowner. "When I arrived, Provence Promotion was my very first contact. The team guided me to obtain funding for my research project. And now they are following me," says the leader.

Laureate of the Smartport Challenge

"Everything went very fast. CMA CGM opened the doors of its very new ZeBox incubator to us. In parallel, in collaboration with Aix Marseille University, I set up a research project on the processing of AIS raw data. Co-financed by the South Region, it will enable us to hire a PhD student in artificial intelligence," explains Pierre Garreau. Searoutes already has five employees. The SME plans to recruit three more people in 2019. The Winner of the Smartport Challenge, the start-up has caught the attention of the Port of Marseille-Fos. Over the next six months, the two structures will co-develop an eco-calculator to compare CO2 emissions on specific roads. "We want to enhance the value of the journey through Marseille by demonstrating to key accounts the CO2 reduction achieved," says Pierre Garreau.

For example, we will compare a Shanghai-Lyon via Marseille and a Shanghai-Lyon via the port of Rotterdam. It also aims to help shippers to carry out their CO2 reporting. We are starting to work on the maritime lines that transit through Marseille with the aim of developing multimodal transport," Pierre Garreau announced. This prototype software under development will be presented next June at Smartport Day.