The Greek/Cypriot startup company VesselBot was chosen among 1700 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 full support of maritime powerhouses like Van Oord, Vopak, Boskalis and Damen.
Other partners in the program include Heineken, Rabobank and EY. On March 7 & 8, during the final selection days, 19 startups pitched for an audience of over 160 mentors, investors and industry experts.
The 12 best were selected to enter the acceleration program of PortXL. Greek ship-chartering marketplace Vesselbot is one of those top 12 startups that made the program.
On June 30th, during shakedown, Vesselbot will present their progress to an audience of over 1.000 people. Journalists, partners and investors will celebrate the end of the program and hopefully take them to the next level.
Manual way, until today: Owners and charterers wishing to charter a vessel have to go through a very manual process of reviewing thousands of email offers they receive from Ship Brokers in order to identify prospective matches.
They rely extensively on the information, the brokers they cooperate with, provide them with regarding the prevailing market hire rates at given ports.
Choosing the right Charterer / Owner is a very sensitive process which needs to be executed in a very timely manner.
The manual way it is currently being processed, and the number of different mediums used, make it a very tedious process for both parties and effectively does not allow neither party to make the best possible informed decision.
VesselBot solution: A SaaS enabled marketplace that will provide Charterers and Vessel Owners strategic, operating and financial efficiency benefits by enabling them to identify the best possible counterparty, utilizing the least company resources, at a significantly lower cost than the traditional chartering houses.
Vessel owners will gain access to a medium for promoting their vessels to a large number of Charterers.
Through the rating system the Vessel Owners safeguard that the service they will receive from their counterparty is of good quality.
Lower costs through efficiencies achieved in the Chartering department, as well as lower commission fees payable to Brokers.
Through the usage of the platform and the automation of several processes Vessel Owners will achieve significant reductions in their operating cost.
Theplatform’s algorithm shall provide an intelligent analysis of available data to Vessel Owners enabling them to achieve the best market rates for their vessels, and in accordance with their Chartering strategy.
Through the usage of the platform the best positioned vessels will be proposed. As a result this will reduce ballast voyages and associated running costs, notably in respect of bunkers. Due to the concentration of data and broader geographic coverage reductions of waiting time and time spent in positioning the vessels will benefit the industry as a whole, in the form of reduction of deviation, waiting time and idle time for the account of the Ship Owners.