Greece-based start-up Harbor Lab is the latest maritime tech firm to benefit from the wave of venture capital funding flowing into the sector, having secured €6.1 million in investment to further develop its shipping disbursement analysis software.
The Athens-based company’s SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) application automatically calculates and evaluates port expenses against real-time port tariffs. Harbor Lab says it will use the new capital to acquire talent to scale up its core products.
VentureFriends and Speedinvest led the funding round, with participation from additional investors including theDOCK, Signal Ocean, Motion Ventures, TecPier, Innoport, Charge VC and others. The company also received investment from tech founders including Alexandros Chatzielftheriou, founder of Blueground.
“Many digitalisation gaps have been closed across shipping in recent years, however the disbursements process in shipping companies is often inefficient and administration-heavy, with little visibility for the ship operator of the actual costs associated with port calls,” said HarborLab CEO and founder, Antonis Malaxianakis.
“Harbor Lab’s DA Tool addresses these issues and can save operators around $2000 per port call, when a vessel operates in the spot market, and $1500 when she is on time charter.”
Costs paid on disbursements often include port dues, towage and pilotage fees. Through the DA Tool, the ship operator can appoint a representative in port, confirm decisions and compare fees for items paid through their disbursements account.
By leveraging the total volume of port calls processed through the platform, Harbor Lab says that operators can also secure discounts on marine services and agency fees.
“We are very excited to further support Harbor Lab in its quest to expand globally while establishing their footprint in major maritime hubs like Copenhagen and Singapore. We are also keen to see the product develop with the utilisation of machine learning to digitalise ports around the world making shipping more efficient,” said Apostolos Apostolakis, Partner at VentureFriends.
