“Why cant seafarers own ships when 80% of world trade moves by ships?”

For Captain Vikas Pandey, it became a problem to be solved. His journey from commanding ships to founding the tech-driven platform Shipfinex is a powerful shore-transition story, not of leaving the industry behind, but of finding a revolutionary way to reshape it.

An Unplanned Sailing Career and an Entrepreneur's Itch

Captain Vikas Pandey’s career at sea almost didn't happen. His original goal was to be a Navy aircraft carrier pilot, but after being rejected on the final day of the SSB interviews, a chance conversation led him to the merchant navy. He started his merchant navy career in 2002 with one of the largest ship management companies and gained experience on all type of ships, building a successful career up to the rank of Master.

But a life of routine, even at the highest level, wasn't enough. "I cannot sit idle and be monotonous," Vikas explains. This restlessness - what he calls an "entrepreneurial keeda" - sparked his first venture in 2009. While on leave, he started a maritime coaching institute to address the lack of guidance he had experienced as a cadet. This was the first sign of a recurring theme in his career: identifying a problem and building a solution for it. Other ventures followed, including a ship management company and an international SIM card business, each serving as a real-world MBA in fundraising, team building, and scaling a business.

The Tech Epiphany

The true turning point came in 2017. A meeting with a tech leader who had worked at Tesla and Microsoft changed everything. "He told me three things are going to change the world in the next 10 years," Vikas recalls, "IoT (Internet of Things), AI, and Blockchain."

While he was familiar with the first two, blockchain was a new concept. A subsequent visit to India's largest blockchain conference was the final catalyst. "That completely changed my mindset," he says. "I was like, what are we doing? Where are we as a shipping industry?" He realized that the world's most valuable companies were tech-driven, and if he wanted to make a truly massive impact, he had to pivot. The idea wasn't to leave shipping, but to bring this powerful new technology back to solve its oldest problems.

Building Shipfinex

The core problem was clear to him from his time on the bridge. The maritime industry, which moves over 80% of world trade, is powered by assets worth trillions of dollars. Yet, ship ownership is a closed club. Ships are highly illiquid assets, and for the average investor (even for the seafarers who operate them) investing directly is impossible.

"We as sailors have been earning money and investing it," Vikas points out. "We know the asset we work on makes money, but there is no avenue where I can go and invest in ships."

This is the gap Shipfinex (a name combining Ship Finance and Exchange) was created to fill.

The platform uses blockchain technology to fractionalize ship ownership. In simple terms, a company that owns a vessel is converted into digital shares, or "tokens." This allows investors to buy a piece of a specific, high-value maritime asset, earning passive income as the ship generates revenue and trading their tokens on a secondary market.

Fixing a centuries-old problem requires immense trust. From day one, Vikas's approach was compliance-first. "The biggest challenge is regulatory," he admits. The team worked tirelessly to build a framework that would be scrutinized and approved by authorities. This dedication paid off when Shipfinex received its initial approval from Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), one of the world's most comprehensive regulatory bodies for digital assets.

The platform is built on transparency. Investors can see a vessel's live tracking data, real-time valuation, inspection reports, and charter agreements, allowing them to make truly informed decisions.

Your Piece of the Voyage

Captain Pandey’s journey shows that a shore transition can be about more than just a new job; it can be about transforming the industry itself. He saw a challenge that the people who know ships best had no way to own them and dedicated himself to building the solution.

For the maritime professionals reading this, Shipfinex offers a unique opportunity: a chance to invest your hard-earned money and industry knowledge into the very assets you understand better than anyone else. The world of ship ownership is no longer a distant shore. With Shipfinex, it’s closer than you think.