Ocyan Waves Challenge receives over 100 submissions from startups

The Ocyan Waves Challenge, the first program of Ocyan’s innovation platform, received 123 project submissions from startups located in all regions of the country. The companies selected for the second phase will be announced on May 15.

“The number of projects submitted surpassed our expectations. Given the only short time during which the oil and gas industry has interfaced with the world of startups, we didn’t imagine this level of interest. We have startups from all over Brazil, including from states in the North,” commemorated Rodrigo Lemos, Ocyan’s Offshore Production Director and the head of Ocyan Waves. According to him, by the end of May, they will hold Pitch Day for the companies moving on to the second phase.

Ocyan Waves posed eight challenges to the startups for developing innovative solutions to problems in the support or operational areas. The challenges that most received project submissions were those not specific to the oil and gas industry, such as digitalization of documents aboard units on the high seas (26 startups) and optimizing equipment inspection processes (25 startups).

In the case of challenges involving activities directly linked to the industry, the ones receiving the most submissions were for improvements to the operational control of blowout preventers, an important piece of equipment on rigs (26 submissions), and for improvements to the productivity control of drill pipes, helping to monitor their functioning (8 submissions).

Among the regions, the Southeast was responsible for the highest number of submissions (77), with the state of São Paulo accounting for 38, Rio de Janeiro for 24, Minas Gerais for 12 and Espírito Santo for three. The South region had 32 submissions, with Paraná accounting for 14, Santa Catarina for seven and Rio Grande do Sul for 11. The Northeast registered eight submissions, with Bahia accounting for three, Alagoas for two, and Ceará, Sergipe and Pernambuco each accounting for one. Meanwhile, the Midwest registered two submissions, with one each from Mato Grosso do Sul and the Federal District. And the North registered one project submission from Amazonas state.

“The regional diversity shows how we can leverage the country’s creative companies and bring to Ocyan innovative solutions beyond those found on the shelves of our current suppliers,” said the executive.

The program’s next phases are: Pitch Day (meeting of entrepreneurs with Ocyan, when the Company will choose the ones to move on to the immersion phase); Immersion (selection of up to eight startups that best meet the challenges and have the best proposals); and Pilot (development and assessment of the solutions by Ocyan). The startups approved in this final phase will be included in Ocyan’s supplier registry.

Innoscience is the firm responsible for structuring and operating the Ocyan Waves Challenge, the first program of the Ocyan Waves platform.