Aronnax. The maritime and ocean podcast

Hello again and welcome to another episode of the Aronnax podcast. I am Craig Eason, from Fathom World and podcast host.

In this episode we go to Spain, to Barcelona. Because it is here that a relatively young company has begun to make waves having now installed a wind assist technology on a second vessel as it pushes ahead with its plans to join the growing market for fossil fuel free power solutions. The company is called Bound4Blue, founded in 2006 not by nautical engineers, but aeronautical engineers who had an original dream of using wind power in vessels to create electricity that could generate renewable fuels. Over the last fifteen years the company not only adapted its plans, focusing on the energy potential of a rigid wingsail solution, and how it can be a solution into the maritime market, but managaed to go from strength to strength.

Entrepreneurs and those with novel ideas will know all to well how hard it is to get traction in a new market. There is the overwhelming and continual need to raise financial support, to be able to focus on a challenge while also looking at winning grants, or investment from angel investors or venture capitalists…or as so many will now, from families friends and fools as many say. But even with initial financial support the challenges never go away, startup financing inevitably is for research and development, for specific projects, not for commercialisation. At some point any company with a product to sell has to take an idea on paper, or a software design programme, and move from scale models to demonstration projects, to then sourcing and contracting materials, suppliers and construction assuming that orders will come. Its called the ”Valley of Death”, and where an entrepreneur start-up with a fantastic product could easily become stuck and fold. The product is tested, the product is ready, and all that is needed is the market to buy it…. And if the product is an extremely visible one, and the market is traditionally very conservative, the challenge is all the greater.

This is where Bound4Blue is now, it has a second system installed of one of its two propulsion solutions and is now investing in ramping up. It has been successful in raising money, but knows it needs more.

I spoke to two of the co-founders about the journey so far, and how they are ramping up, particularly how they look for suppliers to make the systems, and ensure they have the funding to move forward and expand.

Cristina Aleixendri is COO, chief Operating Officer, and David Ferrer is chief technology officer. My first question to Cristina was how they got their first moonshot idea to look at clean energy production and then were able to adapt it to providing clean power solutions, and still keep their initial investors enthusiastic.

More details and images in Fathom.world of course!