Kongsberg Digital acquires Denmark’s maritime software firm

Kongsberg Digital, part of Norway’s Kongsberg Group, has acquired Coach Solutions, a Denmark-based supplier of software solutions for vessel performance and monitoring. The new name of the company will be Kongsberg Coach Solutions.

The acquisition was finalized on 30 June 2020.

Coach’s vessel performance monitoring system was developed by Danish shipping company Clipper Group. In 2016, Coach was established as an independent company – Coach Solutions ApS – which has grown rapidly. Its software currently has over 900 licenses running.

Coach supplies vessel operators, owners, pool managers and technical managers with a suite of tools for vessel performance, weather routing and noon reporting. The solutions allow ship owners and operators to optimize energy consumption and receive constantly updated weather routing, assisting them in making large economic and environmental savings from their operations.

With the addition of Kongsberg Digital’s resources and global network, the parties expect to accelerate Coach’s growth.

“Coach’s software is highly complementary to the portfolio of maritime digital solutions we offer and will be of strategic importance in our further development,” Hege Skryseth, President of Kongsberg Digital, said.

“Joining Kongsberg Digital is a fantastic step forward for Coach, so we can continue delivering business value to our clients. Kongsberg Digital has an … ability to unlock the value of digital data with its Kognifai intrastructure.  We at Coach very much look forward to joining the Kongsberg family and being part of the journey of digitalizing the world fleet,” Anders Bruun, CEO of Coach Solutions, commented.

As part of Kongsberg, Kongsberg Coach Solutions will be integrated in Kongsberg Digital’s Maritime Digital Solutions portfolio, offering digitalization solutions to the maritime sector. The solutions will complement Kongsberg’s vessel insight data infrastructure solution and the Kognifai Maritime Ecosystem.

“Coach Solutions completes our range of maritime digital solutions to the merchant marine market. Coach Solutions’ software is simple to install and use, giving customers key tools and a foundation on which to start their digitalization. We are happy to welcome the team onboard and look forward to working with Kongsberg Coach Solutions as part of the Kongsberg family,” Vigleik Takle, SVP, Maritime Digital Solutions at Kongsberg Digital, said.

”We are pleased to have been the early developer of Coach,” Peter Norborg, Group CEO, Clipper Bulk A/S, said.

 “Based on continuous input from our organization Coach has developed one of … software solutions for optimizing vessel performance and routing. But software development is not a core competence for Clipper, and we are glad that, in Kongsberg, Coach will have a dedicated, long-term, technology-focused owner who can accelerate Coach’s development and deployment,” he added.