Veer Group, the brainchild of Lunenburg, N.S.-based shipping entrepreneur Danielle Southcott, is raising capital and searching for a manufacturing partner for its planned hydrogen- and wind-powered container ships.

So far, CEO Southcott said in an interview, Veer has raised about US$1.6 million (C$2.2 million), and hopes to raise about another US$2.4 million to cover operating expenses while it works on building its first vessel, which it plans to be 100 metres long.

Southcott, who hails from near Kingston, Ontario, previously founded Costa Rican shipping company SAILCARGO, which builds and operates wooden sailing ships augmented with electric motors. A combination of sails and hydrogen is better suited to container ships like those Veer plans to build because hydrogen is more energy dense than batteries, she said.

“To date, we are funded by 100 percent private impact investors, so individuals who want to make a difference and contribute their funds towards a greener future — or now we’re calling it a bluer future,” said Southcott. “It’s an impact investment opportunity.

“(The US$2.4 million) is for the company’s running and administration costs, and project or construction finance will be financed separately for the vessel.”

Veer’s planned ship design has already been approved by the American Bureau of Shipping, which provides certification services to the marine industry, and Southcott says she hopes to start building the vessel this year.

She added that Veer will operate its own ships under charter for other businesses, rather than selling them outright, in order to ensure consistency in how they are operated.

“We are open to partnering with shipping firms, but due to the unique nature of the vessel, we want to make sure that the crew training and logistics and everything is handled in a way that is appropriate for the ship,” said Southcott.

Veer, which has three employees, counting Southcott, is formally a Bahamian company. Southcott lived in the Caribbean nation until recently, and its government has been vocal about concerns related to climate change and sea level rise.

“The Bahamas is a very low-lying island nation that is really highlighting their commitment to climate change, and so they want to bring Veer on as a clean industrial partner to show their commitment to decarbonizing their shipping industry,” said Southcott.

“But having said that, they can't build the ships, and there's a lot of other things that the Bahamas wouldn't be able to do. So while we are registered in the Bahamas, we are also looking for another national partner, I guess you could say, and we hope that it could be Canada.”

Southcott has been considering some European shipbuilders as partners, but said her personal connection with Canada and potential easy access to the Eastern Seaboard, mean she would prefer to forge business partnerships in this country.

So far, her team has had talks with one Canadian shipbuilder, and while Southcott arrived in Nova Scotia from the Bahamas only recently, she said she is working on developing relationships with Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, the Dartmouth-based Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship and its Start-Up Yard incubator, and Dalhousie University.