Cetasol has secured €2.3M in seed funding to expand its AI-powered decision support and digital twin technology, helping the maritime industry reduce costs and GHG emissions, while improving fuel efficiency, real-time insights, and predictive maintenance.
This investment round was co-lead by BackingMinds and Shift4Good, alongside continued support from Cetesol’s existing investor Sarsia.
iHelm Technology
Cetasol’s core innovation is iHelm, a decision support solution for individual vessels and the entire fleet. iHelm was developed to reduce emissions from today’s vessels using real operational data.
iHelm helps save fuel, track vessel performance, stay compliant, and maximize uptime, with real-time decision support and data-driven insights. For small to mid-size vessels, Cetasol’s solution enables 10–25% fuel savings.
The system continuously gathers data directly from the vessel and through Cetasol’s digital twin technology of vessel and engine. This enables real-time recommendations to the captain via edge computing.
All operational data is also transmitted to a cloud-based dashboard, providing fleet managers and business owners with access to both real-time and historical performance metrics, AI-driven decision support and predictive maintenance capabilities.
Ethan Faghani, CEO and Founder of Cetasol, stated, “This investment confirms that our approach to AI-driven decision support and maritime sustainability is both needed and trusted. With this support, we are scaling faster and wider – delivering intelligent solutions to maritime operations globally.”
This kind of AI-driven decision support provided by Cetasol’s iHelm is crucial in the maritime industry.
Shipping is responsible for about 3% of global CO₂ emissions. Innovation and investment have mainly focused on electrification and large vessels, but small and mid-sized vessels, forming nearly 90% of the global fleet, provide the fastest and most scalable path to significant climate impact.
This is where fuel optimization, driven by real vessel data, comes in. By leveraging both real-time and historical data, operators can make informed decisions to optimize performance and reduce costs and GHG emissions, capabilities enabled by Cetasol’s iHelm.
Niclas Wijkström, CFO & Investment Director at BackingMinds, commented, “Cetasol is tackling one of the maritime industry’s biggest blind spots. While most solutions target the largest vessels, nearly 90% of the global fleet consists of small- and medium-sized ships that are underserved and often lack access to affordable optimization tools. By combining edge computing with AI-driven analytics, it addresses critical challenges such as fuel optimization, real-time decision support, and emissions tracking. We are proud to back Cetasol’s talented team, led by Ethan, and to support their journey as they scale globally.”
Matthieu de Chanville, Managing Partner at Shift4Good, agreed, adding “Cetasol has developed a solution that delivers measurable impact and ROI from day one – it’s already proven, easy to deploy across a wide range of vessels, and highly relevant for fleet managers. What’s more, the platform lays the groundwork for the future of optimized maritime operations through predictive maintenance – a domain we already know well from our investments in road mobility. We see strong complementarity, both in terms of expertise and market presence, especially in Southeast Asia where we’re very active. We’ve also been impressed by Ethan’s deep domain knowledge, bold vision, and relentless drive.”
Jon-Kåre Hansen, Partner at Sarsia, also mentioned, “Cetasol has continued to strengthen its AI-driven fuel saving solution over the last year, and is now the clear No.1 provider in the mid-size vessel market. There is a lot of opportunities and a lot of fuel to save. Over the last year the customer base has been growing fast, and Sarsia strongly believes in the team and are happy to continue to support the journey.“
Future Developments
With this new investment, Cetasol will focus on scaling its business, and strengthen its commercial operations. The company aims to expand its presence in key maritime markets, deepen customer relationships, and enhance its partner network.
One of Cetasol’s central goals is to increase the adoption of iHelm across a broader range of vessel types and geographies for measurable impact on energy efficiency and GHG emissions reduction.
The company will also keep investing in product development, enhancing its intelligent platform to meet the evolving needs of the maritime industry and support more data-driven and sustainable operations globally.
