Israeli startup offers AI solution for navigating crowded waters

The Israeli startup Orca AI has developed an AI-driven system that offers safe navigation in crowded waters. The company’s Co-Captain system shares real-time information about potential GPS manipulations, congestion and potential security threats in the relevant area.

The company was founded by Dor Raviv and Yarden Gross, who met during their service in the Israeli Navy. Raviv previously served as a maritime navigation instructor and was linked to a project involving unmanned vessels.

He spent much of his childhood sailing with his family on yachts around the world.

Gross grew up in a family that ran commercial tourist boats around the Sea of Galilee and later worked as a course instructor in the Israeli Navy.

The goal of Orca AI is to make the seas safer through the use of artificial intelligence.

“As more than 90 percent of all commerce is transported on board large commercial ships, we aim to make maritime commerce more safe, sustainable and secure for the entirety of the supply chain,” Raviv, who currently serves as the company's Chief Technology Officer, told The Times of Israel.  

“We have seen the fragility [of maritime trade routes] most recently with Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacking ships in the Red Sea, and [during] the Suez Canal blockade a few years ago.”

The Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist militia in Yemen has been attacking international commercial vessels in the Red Sea region since October 2023. While the attacks have decreased significantly in recent months, the threat remains.

Founded in 2018 and with offices in Tel Aviv, London and Athens, Orca AI has already been described as the “Waze of the seas,” referring to the popular Israeli navigation app Waze, which was acquired by Google.

“We took inspiration from our day-to-day life using Google Maps and Waze, although in the maritime industry there are different types of events and routes that, if you had prior acquired knowledge of, such as low-visibility conditions, you could quickly adjust your route,” Raviv explained.

“In the maritime world, ships do not communicate with each other and rely mostly on traditional navigation tools such as radar systems, which have shortcomings,” he said.

Gross, who serves as the company CEO, explained the growing importance of collaborative navigation as maritime traffic becomes increasingly crowded.

“Collaborative navigation at sea is no longer optional – it’s a safety, environmental, and security imperative,” Gross said. “What we’re building is a living, evolving ecosystem, wherein each vessel becomes a key link in a safety chain that keeps crews connected and ahead of risk.”

Raviv stressed that the Orca AI's system integrates processed data from multiple sources.

“We upload all of these data to a single unified cloud where we conduct multiple types of processing, deploying AI algorithms, analyzing trends in shipping, understanding high traffic areas and anomalies, and benchmarking safety of navigation,” he said.

“We have collected more than 100 million nautical miles to teach our AI model and it’s constantly compounding, more centrioles, more visibility conditions, and more unique attributes of maritime operations, trained on 1,000 ships sailing daily,” Raviv continued.

Looking ahead, he predicts that the shipping industry is moving toward full autonomy.

“We believe that one of the earliest industries to actually adopt full autonomy will be the shipping industry, as everything moves slower, distances are a little bit farther, and there are no kids running and playing ball on streets,” Raviv said.

“It’s a little bit more of a simpler problem, which has its own challenges, but investing in autonomous shipping has massive benefit to greater growth of everyone, because we are all impacted by global commerce,” he added.

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