How has your business model and error and experiments. There are evolved since you started? a lot of solutions we are either devel- We’ve always been trying to fill the oping or consulting on, so we take on gaps in shipping and blockchain. Our various roles whether we form con- approach is collaborative: Rather than sortia or provide consultancy as a doing it alone, we form consortia and one-off. projects with many different actors in Our role is to build a good governance the maritime industry. We spent our structure, so we can ensure this is 1st year doing research, and our R&D a playground for others to develop arm is still the mothership of BLOC. on without becoming a monopolis- This is where we take in grant funds tic partner. Whether it is providing and do our early experimentations sound scientific research behind the and demonstrations. In addition, we solution, validating it or bringing in have recently developed a consult- different industry players to build the ing arm. There was an interest in how business case or building the tech- we create technology from an up- nology itself - we can do all of that. stream and inclusive process. But we It is not necessarily ready to go to also experienced a general willing- market in the end, so we keep a long- ness to participate amongst industry term perspective. This makes grant players, for instance in a feasibility funding compulsory for so much of study for blockchain in shipping, or what we do. in new solutions linked to bunkering. Consulting allows us to help those Can you share your experience from companies that do not want to exper- working with grant funds? iment within the consortia model or We have received funding from The that want to first test out options and Danish Maritime Fund, Climate-KIC, ideas. Finally, we are also developing Copenhagen Fintech Lab, and ventures with other companies. Lloyds Register Foundation. With Lloyd’s we´re looking for new busi- How do you balance your research ness models and revenue streams, DNA with the commercial compo- which is typical for our approach to nent? grant partners. Many research funds Our research arm supports each focus on how emerging technology business case we build. We are con- can be applied in the real world. We scious of not only validating a tech- often partner with them for work that nical model but also understanding comes a step before actual use cases. different metrics - the environmental, We build a product demonstration social and governance aspects. Then and the needed infrastructure, so we we use that de-risked space to un- can test it. derstand and create progress by trial