Article by Hans Buitelaar, Metstrade
Start-Ups get introduced to the international community of yachting professionals every year at Metststrade Show. Upcoming edition, seventeen start-ups will present their innovations at the Leisure Marine Start-Up area in Hall 5, with eight newly founded companies presenting advanced products at the Superyacht Start-Up area in hall 8. Brightness radiates from these assemblies of fresh technology-driven entrepreneurs.
The start-up areas are co-organised by Yachting Ventures, an accelerator company that specialises in helping newly established companies in the leisure marine industry to obtain the right connections, acquire funding and get known in the industry worldwide. Founder Gabbi Richardson observes a lot of activity of newcomers in yachting: “The marine startup community has never been more active. Across the Start-Up area and Superyacht Start-Up area, we’re seeing founders tackle an increasingly broad range of challenges, from electrification and sustainability to maintenance, safety and the day-to-day realities of running a yacht.”
Make A.I. work
Artificial Intelligence has been a buzzword for some editions of the trade show. Newcomers in the industry are capitalising on it. Richardson: “One noticeable development is the growing use of AI and connected technology. In both pavilions, a considerable number of the companies are building AI products. This reflects a broader shift towards using technology to simplify operations, reduce administration and help people make better decisions.
Selection highlighted
Seven of the new companies’ founders express their excitement to be part of the Start-up area at Metstrade. They all enter the marine industry with different products: from an onboard wave energy generator, a documentation organiser app, environment-friendly lubrication and technology that creates potable water on board without complicated systems: the differentiation is impressive.
Elvalen
Slovenian companyy Primum put some ten years of research into the development of Elvalen. This is a device that generates electricity from the rocking motion that a boat experiences in waves. In the upcoming edition of Metstrade, Elvalen is first introduced to the international industry as a brand name for the wave-motion battery charging device for yachts. Founder Primoz Kunaver explains: “An internal eccentric mass moves up and down, driving an electrical generator through a gearbox. Complex electronics then convert the variable electrical output into a suitable charging voltage for a 12 Volt onboard battery system. t can generate electricity at anchor, on a mooring or underway. Batteries often fully discharge during winter months. The most important function of Elvalen is battery maintenance, by preventing batteries from full discharge in the winter time. During summer sailing, it can also provide some supplementary charging to the board battery. In moderate waves, the output is approximately 3 Watt. When the battery needs quick re-charging, a removable handle is fitted so the crew can move the mechanism in Elvalen by hand and generate electricity that way.”
YachtPass
Sailing permits, Yachtmaster’s certificate, boat registration, ensurance documents, radio certificates, manuals for engine, navigation equipment and maintenance instructions for all systems on board. This list is not complete, but already comprises of lots of documents. Most boaters keep all of them in paper on board. Yachtass keeps all these documents certified in one app. A QR code allows for scanning by authorities so authenticity can be acknowledged. The app aso allows to ‘talk to your boat’. With all of the manuafacturer manuals of all systems on board integrted into the app, the A.I. function can explain ho to do maintenance or execute repairs. But there is more: the ownership, maintenance and repair history of the boat can be archived. This feature is beneficial for boat value. Especially for brokers, having the history of a boat documented has very high value. This gives real insight in the health of a boat’s systems. “In the automotive industry, registration of car maintenance history, ownership and more is automised,” founder Nard Kempers of the Dutch company explains. “It will be of immense value for boat resellers if this could also be done for yachts. We go to Metstrade to try to convince the yachting industry that digitisation of boat’s maintenance history and ownership is needed and that we have the tool for just that. And of course, individual boat owner may find YachtPass practical, too.”
NZero
Pant-based lubrication products are introduced to leisure boating by Nzero Marine. Started in 2025, this is the marine brnch of Nzero, who produce non-fossil lubrication products for sports: wax for ski’s and snowboards, lube oil and degreaser for bikes and now lube, grease, degreaser and wax for boaters. Guillem Capellades from the Spanish company explains: “NZero Marine provides an innovative alternative for vessel maintenance and to contributes to a more responsible evolution of the marine industry. Our plant-based solutions are designed to address common needs in marine maintenance, such as lubrication, component protection, and usability. Our goal is to provide professionals and boaters with functional products that enable efficient work, while simultaneously reducing reliance on certain mineral-based raw materials. Boats and yachts sail in direct contact with the aquatic environment. Therefor, the composition of the products they use is of particular importance. We believe that sustainability must be an integral part of technical decision-making, rather than merely a marketing argument. At Nzero we have the ambition to demonstrate that innovation, functionality, and environmental responsibility can all be part of a single, cohesive value proposition. At Metstrade, we aim to establish relationships with distributors and commercial partners who can help us bring our solutions to new clients and markets. We want the whole marine industry worldwide to know NZero Marine offers sustainable maintenance products for boating.“
Vital Lyfe
Founders Andrew Harner and Jonathan Criss of this Californian company share purpose in creating a simple and reliable tool to make clean drinking water everywhere at low cost. They created Access: a watermaker-in-a-box. The 11,3 kg box of 50 x 23 x 20.5 cm contains all thart is necessary to make clean drinking water from sea water or contaminated water. A battery is inside on which it can run an hour, producing almost 23 liters of water from salty sea water or over 45 liters of clean water from contaminated fresh water. Water is cleaned at the molecular level by pressing it through a membrane at high pressure. The watermaker is controlled from a smartphone app. This device can run on it’s own battery and on external 12 Volt supply. There is no need for complicated installation. Harner explains: “Our portable and simplified tech is ideal for sailors, bluewater cruises, leisure boaters. Because it’s portable, you can also take it ashore, which a fixed unit can’t do. We have only just begun our expansion into the EU and its very exciting for us to get new eyes on our technology. We believe that ‘access’ is a step change to what people are used to in boating. We want as many people as we can to come see it, pick it up, and run it.”
Tonjo
This Chinese company, founded in 2025, aims to give skippers a clearer view of their vessel and more intuitive access to its controls, making boating safer, simpler and smarter. They developed an Intelligent Helm and Assisted Navigation system that integrates all systems on board. Navigation electronics, engine data, lighting, climate control and entertainment often come from different suppliers, each with its own display, app or switch panel. Owners have to learn several systems, while boatbuilders have to make those systems work together. Sherry Zhang points out that this integration is to make boating safer, simpler and smarter. “One central view of key vessel information helps skippers to monitor the status of engine, electronics and more on board without having to piece together information from separate displays. The A.I. in our control system offers assisted navigation to support situational awareness and decision-making. Having only one interface at the helm station reduces the number of separate screens, apps and switch panels that a boater needs to learn and operate. This makes everyday tasks more straightforward and vessel operation more approachable for less experienced users. Connecting equipment, vessel data and controls in one single monitoring smart control system, presents a wealth of data about the boat and provides information about the maintenance, history and status of the systems on board.”
Tonjo has clear objectives for the participation at Metstrade Start-Up area. Zhang: “We have two priorities: finding European distribution and service partners, and securing a first factory-fit project with a production boatbuilder. We are particularly interested in builders looking for an integrated helm solution. A successful Metstrade for us would mean agreeing on a first factory-fit project and establishing distribution and service coverage in a European market.”
Sway
Dutch company Sway offers a tool to log all the trips boaters make. The Sway box connects with all the NMEA instruments and equipment on board and logs the journey. It automatically makes a journey log that has all the data integrated: the course, distance, speed but also the weather, wind force and direction, and – if connected to the NMEA – fuel consumption, engine hours, AIS. The company was founded by two keen sailors from Amsterdam: Erwin Marges and Eric van der Velde. Marges tells the story: “After 2,5 years of development, Sway went commercial in 2025 by placing the product in stores at a selected group of retailers in leisure boating in the Netherlands. We jhave an active group of ambassadors, mostly long distance sailors on sailing yachts. In fct, Sway is suited for any boat that has NMEA instruments, also motor yachts. During Metstrade, we will introduce the latest software update, V3, of our tool. We hope to expand our network throughout Europe at the show. As we have started with some of the best known yachting stores in the Netherlands, we hope to convince shops in other countries to carry our products, too. Last year at Metstrade, we visited the Start-Up Pavilion. So this year, we presented ourselves to Gabbi of Yachting Ventures because we knew participating here could be good launching of Sway at an international level.”
Sea-it
At the Superyacht Start-Up area, two experienced superyacht crew present their tool to improve logistics on board. Blake Smidt and his partner Roxy, a technician and a chief stewardess, have made Sea-it. This tool provides quick and easy overview of inventories on board of a larger yacht. The couple learnt that a big deal of time goes into organising the inventory on board of yachts, taking the stews from their actual job: providng the best experience for owners and guests. Sea-it keeps track of inventory: like uniforms, alcohol, tobacco and more. Smidt does the oral tour: “Sea-it gives the interior team one live view of everything on board, from the cellar to crew uniform. Crew log things as they go, like a bottle opened at lunch, a broken glass or a polo issued to a new deckhand. It takes a few seconds on a phone or iPad so the inventory stays true instead of going out of date the day after you’ve just spent hours on a spreadsheet. Everyone on the team sees the same numbers, and chiefs and captains get ready-made reports. It also makes handovers much easier. We aim to make the setup of each boat as easy as possible by moving its existing spreadsheets/inventories across, so crew open the app and everything is already there, ready to go. Within the first two weeks of launching, three boats had started using it with their inventories already in the app. Around a dozen more have signed up or shown interest within our first month. The app is free during our launch period, and pricing is planned to go live around mid to late November, with a free trial still being offered.”
Expectations of participating at Metstrade are high: “Mostly I’d love to meet the crew and interior teams who will actually use the app, hear what they’d change or like to see in the app and get a few more boats on board for the winter shipyard season.”
Gabbi’s boost
Building personal relations is key in the marine industry, Yachting Ventrues’ Gabbi Richardson points out:
“In our experience, the marine industry is particularly relationship-driven. Newcomers from other industries bring valuable expertise, but they need opportunities to demonstrate that their products work in a marine environment and understand how customers actually operate. A successful pilot with a respected shipyard or operator can make a significant difference in building that trust.” Will the start-ups experience big growth after participating? Richardson: “It’s difficult to give an ‘average’ timeline from startup to growth because the businesses are so different. Software companies can often develop and test more quickly, while hardware businesses typically need longer for prototyping, testing and production. Securing those first customers, followed by repeat orders or wider adoption, is a more meaningful indicator of progress than the age of the company. That’s an important part of what these areas at Metstrade offer: the chance for founders to meet potential customers and partners face-to-face, get direct feedback and build relationships that help their businesses grow.”
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