EuropeOperationsTech

VesselBot: Smarter chartering

Athens: Earlier this month Greek Cypriot startup company VesselBot was chosen among 1,700 companies around the globe to participate at PortXL, a Dutch accelerator based at the port of Rotterdam.

PortXL is the first accelerator program for tech startups in port related industries. It was initiated by the Port of Rotterdam with support from the likes of Van Oord, Vopak, Boskalis and Damen.

This week VesselBot will present its progress to an audience of over 1,000 people. Vesselbot is a SaaS enabled marketplace that provides commercial shipping participants, charterers and vessel owners, strategic, operating, and financial efficiencies, by enabling them to identify the best possible counterparty, utilising the least company resources, at a significantly lower cost than the traditional way the market operates today.

“Think of the benefits brought to their respective markets by disruptive technologies introduced in the logistics sector for example by Flexport or Transfix and the benefits reaped by market participants; couldn’t the shipping industry benefit as well by utilising such tools, solutions, technologies?” muses VesselBot’s ceo Constantine Komodromos.

Komodromos says shipping is “miles behind” similar industries such as aviation when it comes to technological development.

“Smart shipping in all senses is a must, and I think that despite the cultural shift required for it, there will be change in the market towards smart shipping; it may take some time but I would expect that this would occur pretty quickly especially if big players start adopting a different standpoint in the market towards this direction,” Komodromos contends.

Komodromos suggests that today’s chartering process is “quite inefficient” with data too fragmented. VesselBot’s artificial intelligence is a solution, he says.

“The automations offered through our platform, like online bidding and negotiation of the transportation cost, as well as the charter party terms enable users to become far more efficient and effective in concluding their business transactions,” concludes Komodromos.

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