The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency has lent $93,888 to Halifax-based OceanSync Data Solutions to help the company develop weather data solutions for the shipping industry.

The federal economic development agency issued a press release Friday saying it would lend the company the money through its Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program.

OceanSync will use the funds to test and commercialize its automated weather station units. These units are deployed on seafaring ships, where they collect and relay environmental data in real time. This improves shipping route optimization, situational awareness and safety.

“We are excited to be building the first truly global distributed network of shipborne weather stations delivering large volumes of high-quality data in a cost-effective way,” said OceanSync Managing Director Sebastiaan Ambtman in a statement. “Our solution provides data models for better weather forecasting, route optimization, situational awareness, and safety.”

OceanSync uses existing commercial fleets and satellite technology to collect and distribute real-time ocean weather observations with more relevant geographic coverage than satellite, drifters, buoys or drones, the company says.

The automated weather station units monitor conditions such as wind direction and speed, humidity, temperature and barometric pressure. This data is useful in real-time applications and provides important insights in monitoring and analysing weather systems and climate change over time.

The ACOA money will be used in a project in which the company will build and deploy 20 hardware units to capture a baseline data set with enough richness and volume to provide customers with valuable data on specific geographical areas and shipping routes.

Disclosure: ACOA is a client of Entrevestor.