VentureFriends’ Post

Very interesting article on the history of #oceanfreight and what the future has in store. Good read for any #supplychain nerds like me. 🤓 https://lnkd.in/eCe9mDqT

In the maritime kingdom of commercial operation , the challenges loom large, particularly in the landscape of digitization. Daily demands from customers, such as owners and charters, escalate, compounded by the ever-evolving #regulatory landscape. Amidst the market's inundation with a barrage of solutions, #championed by numerous startups, we stand distinct. What sets us apart is not just our offering; it's the magnitude of the challenge we willingly embraced. Far beyond the #ordinary, we've undertaken a journey that extends beyond the boundaries faced by other #startups worldwide. Our commitment to surmounting challenges and pushing limits sets us on a trajectory that's not merely bigger but farther-reaching in the maritime commercial arena. In the arena of #business, where #challenges roar louder than the waves, we theoceann.com stand, forged by the crucible of a small-town spirit. #The #challenge is formidable, as borders shift, races diversify, funds fluctuate, markets evolve, and commercial wisdom reigns supreme. Yet, we know, it’s the ones molded by the crucible of small-town dreams, possessing the passion to die or do, who can navigate these turbulent waters. Risking it all, when founder and small team take charge forward, not as a mere entrepreneur, but as an athlete of ambition, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. This is not just a venture; it’s a testament to the indomitable spirit that rises from the roots of a small-town legacy. In the world of business, theoceann.com is am not just a contender; we are an the embodiment of a relentless #force, born from the #shadows and destined to #conquer the peaks. #tech #maritimeindustry #oceanshipping

Mark Seeger used to be the Innovation Director at Ogilvy Singapore, which is where I first met him over 10 years ago. Yes, that's Ogilvy, the advertising company, a company I used to cover when I was in EDB. Mark had a very interesting idea then, which he called the magic retail mirror. The idea basically was that you had this screen outside a clothing store and as you walked past, you would see a mirror image of yourself, but decked out in clothes recommended by the store. If that intrigued you, you would press a button, walk into the store and the clothes (in the appropriate sizes) would be waiting for you to try. Apparently the key in retail is to get the customer to try on stuff in the fitting rooms. That is most of the way to making a sale. Getting a customer into a store to browse isn't enough. In fact, ideally you want minimal space for browsing (that just takes up rent) and maximum space for fitting rooms. The idea sounds super simple, right? And today we have all sorts of magic retail mirror apps. But remember, this was almost 15 years ago. The magic mirror was a digital rendering of you. It was a moving, not static image. It literally was a mirror image. It had to look like you. It couldn't look like an avatar. The clothes had to look realistic and stylish on you. The software had to guess your size correctly and perhaps more crucially, couldn't get your gender wrong. The amount of digital rendering was incredible. We talked to various people, including Digipen, the digital animation school in Singapore. Unfortunately, the idea never panned out. Perhaps it was too ambitious and ahead of its time. But till today, I am still intrigued by it. I also brought Mark and Jack Sim to see PUB's water infrastructure and we talked about ground source heat pumps in Singapore. After Mark moved back to the US, he became a builder of electric motorcycles under the "Mission Motorcycles" brand. You can view a video of him and Jay Leno discussing it here - https://lnkd.in/gsHJ6X7Z To me, Mark's this super rare combination of brilliant rocket scientist + eloquent marketing guy. His latest venture Glydways has raised US$100m+ in funding from the likes of Sam Altman, Bill Gates etc. More details in the 8 min Bloomberg clip below which you should watch. The best way I can describe Glydways is that it is an on-demand autonomous vehicle that picks you up (and you alone) for the ride, for the price of an unsubsidised public transit fare. The vehicle runs on dedicated narrow road lanes, but otherwise needs no special infrastructure. Glydways now wants to bring this solution to the crowded cities of Southeast Asia. If it really works as planned, I think it would be great for a city like Jakarta and especially for a new city like Nusantara. Congratulations Mark on your journey thus far! Yee Kwang Seck Jack Sim Kelvin Tay 鄭潤星 Jackson Chia Patrick Poh Vigneswaran Sellakannu Joseph Situwali Johan YH TAN George Hadi Santoso

Our CEO Mikko Kuosa, sat down with TradeWinds to discuss what sparked the creation of NAPA Studios and what this new venture means in action. As Mikko explains, the initiative is designed to introduce a project mindset to holistically tackle some of shipping’s biggest challenges. For example, leveraging the data NAPA has from hundreds of thousands of vessels in the global fleet, gives us a unique advantage to utlilize our technical and data expertise to create greater impact and value for the industry, from tackling Sail Fast Then Wait with Blue Visby to using voyage optimization for longer CII compliance. Read more here: 👇 https://lnkd.in/efm5cmRe #MaritimeTechnology #Maritime #Decarbonization #Collaboration

Given how often SAFEs and convertible notes are conflated in common discussion, we thought it might be helpful to prepare a comparison of classic convertible notes to SAFEs. Check out the MoFo team's article here: https://lnkd.in/gZ6Dqp3J. #scaleup

New Post: Why Did Convoy Fail? - Introduction Overview of Convoy and its role as a digital freight brokerage Convoy was a digital freight brokerage company that aimed to revolutionize the trucking industry by connecting shippers and carriers through an online platform. The company was founded in 2015 and quickly gained traction, raising substantial funding from prominent investors. Convoy’s innovative technology and user-friendly interface attracted a large customer base, and the company seemed poised for success. Factors contributing to Convoy’s failure On the surface, Convoy’s failure is primarily due to a lack of funding. The company did face financial challenges towards the end, but the reason for […]- https://lnkd.in/gaSYucJ2

PitchBook Senior Analyst Jonathan Geurkink has released another stellar report on supply chain tech, with key insights including: --> VC activity is on the rise, with Q2 deal count up 15.2% QoQ and deal value increasing by 12.7%, marking three straight quarters of growth. --> Supply chain activity is stabilizing, but US trucking rates are still soft, and shipping remains disrupted by conflict in the Middle East. --> The report spotlights growing investment in autonomous trucking, with standout deals like Waabi’s oversubscribed round and Uber's strategic push. --> Featured startups include SkyCell, Skyports Infrastructure, and Prewave, leading innovation in logistics and supply chain resilience. Check out the full report and share your thoughts in the comments! (Thanks: Pitchbook) #SupplyChainTech #VentureCapital #AutonomousTrucking #Innovation #Logistics #PitchBookInsights

Greek maritime #software #startup Harbor Lab has raised $16 million in a Series A #funding round led by Atomico, bringing its total funding to $22.5 million. Harbor Lab's #platform aims to streamline port call #expenses, which can reach $2.2 million per vessel annually, by reducing #invoicing #errors and overpayments from 20% to just 3% per port call. #Founder Antonis Malaxianakis leveraged his extensive #industry #experience, having manually checked over 20,000 disbursement #accounts, to #develop the #software. The #company has already attracted major #clients like Great Eastern #Shipping, Oldendorff, Veson Nautical, and 90POE. Harbor Lab's success is driven by its #focus on #KYC investigations and adapting to geopolitical #crises, such as sanctioning 100 participants overnight due to the war. Atomico partner Ben Blume praised Antonis as a visionary founder with deep industry #experience. Seed investor Apostolos Apostolakis of VentureFriends expressed #excitement about the #company's progress and future potential. Other investors include Notion Capital, SpeedInvest, The Dock, Endeavor Catalyst, and maritime VC TMV. #startup #startupbusiness #Accessibility #Innovation #SustainableLiving #SmartTechnology #FutureOfWork  #FutureBuilding If you spot any inaccuracies, please let us know so we can correct them. Your feedback helps us improve. Thanks! 

project44 are acting erratically and it is weirding me out. Earlier this year there was a lot of talk of them having let go of the majority of their China team. Fast forward to July 23 and they're publishing a press release about deepening investment in China, a partnership with Baidu, Inc., and a local launch for their flagship solution "Movement". I'm a big fan of setting expectations and meeting them, as well as consistent strategies. This is clearly the opposite of that. And yet I'm intrigued, fascinated, and genuinely curious. Last year I had their CEO having to step down on my logtech bingo card. And yet, as we approach Q4 2024, he is still in the driving seat. Kind of... project44 are an important company as far as logistics technology is concerned. They raised a lot, and hit impressive valuations. They've also acquired some great companies along the way, although they've failed to retain most of the great people from said companies. This China play is intriguing, because it could be a whole lot of nothing, or it could be the joker card that they needed to play in order to differentiate themselves from the competition. With bold claims such as having approx. 73% of all trucks on Chinese roads connected to Movement, and being the only compliant solution in China authorized to export logistics data... It actually looks like a good strategy. I'm not saying my position on project44 has changed... And I continue to believe that their investors are (have already) losing (lost) patience with them. Maybe this is the last Hail Mary. One final Hurrah before the plug is pulled. Whatever the case - Shippeo and FourKites, Inc.: your turn to make some bold statements and big announcements. And with WiseTech Global launching their next generation "Cargo Visibility API" alongside "CargoWise Next" at some point in Q4 this year, it really does feel like "Visibility" is rotating back to the forefront of logistics technology. #logistics #tech #data #visibility #shipping #supplychain #freight

🚚 🌎 📈 It is no secret that US-Mexico cross-border freight activity is on a historic rise, with Mexico becoming the US’ top trading partner in 2023, and already this year, trade reached $415B from January-June, the highest total ever recorded for the time period. To keep pace with this growth in trade and movement of products across the US-Mexico border, technology must advance as well to ensure efficient, affordable, and secure cross-border transportation and logistics. Enter Cargado, a startup building tech for the freight industry by freight experts, with a vision to make cross-border freight interconnected, dependable, and transparent. Ironspring Ventures proudly led the company’s $3M pre-seed round (announced in January), which was followed by Cargado raising a $6.8M seed round led by Primary Venture Partners this spring. Co-Founders Matt Silver and Rylan Hawkins bring a differentiated and formidable blend of freight industry expertise, cross-border insight, and technical prowess to tackling this complex problem in a massive market, and we are excited to back this duo and their horsepower team. 👉 Check out our latest “Why We Invested” to learn more about Cargado, its vision to create a seamless experience for stakeholders to collaborate, and how this team is building a world-class, customer-oriented product. Ty Findley https://lnkd.in/gCS5jnbz