Spot Ship secures £1m pre-seed to cut chartering to hours with AI
This article covers Spot Ship, a supply chain startup, which has raised £1m in a pre-seed funding round to speed up and modernise global ship chartering. The development aims to accelerate chartering workflows and reduce idle time across maritime logistics, affecting brokers, charterers, owners and operators.
Spot Ship, a supply chain startup, has raised £1 million in a pre-seed funding round to speed up and modernise global ship chartering, with the company saying its software can cut vessel chartering cycles from days to hours — a change that could reduce friction across maritime logistics.
Why it matters
Chartering a vessel remains a slow, paperwork-heavy process that relies on fragmented, unstructured communications between brokers, charterers, owners and operators. Spot Ship says its service reduces typical matching and negotiation cycles from around six days to two hours, a shift that could lower idle time for ships and improve operational planning across the value chain.
Faster chartering matters because even small improvements to utilisation and speed can have outsized effects on shipping costs, schedules and emissions. For firms running large fleets or complex logistics chains, shaving days off a chartering process can translate into significant savings and more resilient scheduling.
Inside the product
Spot Ship provides a software-as-a-service platform that applies machine learning and next-generation AI to the chartering workflow. The company focuses on turning unstructured emails and communications into structured, actionable data, and it positions a human-in-the-loop layer to validate automated outputs.
According to the company, the platform helps brokers and operators shortlist vessels and manage offers more quickly, feeding back data that improves future matches. Several major shipping companies are cited as early customers, suggesting the product is already being used in live commercial settings rather than only in pilot projects.
Who are the investors?
The round is led by Lisbon-based Ventures.eu, and includes participation from Tradeworks.vc, Improbable CEO Herman Narula, and investor Marcel Kind. Ventures.eu says the transaction is the inaugural investment from its Fund I.
Ventures.eu says it used its corporate network and its Dealflow.eu sourcing to introduce Spot Ship to shipping companies and industry experts as part of its diligence. Those introductions, the firm states, resulted in new commercial customers and attracted additional co-investors to the round.
In the announcement, Fernando Ferreira, Partner at Ventures.eu, said:
We are thrilled to support Spot Ship as our inaugural investment. Our mission is to identify Europe’s most promising, market-ready innovations and help them scale by opening doors to the right corporate partners. Spot Ship has demonstrated exceptional technology, strong execution, and a clear opportunity to become a category leader.
In the announcement, Niklas Holck, Partner at Tradeworks.vc, said:
We see Spot Ship as the system of insight and action for fixing ships, cargoes, and insurance. Their AI-driven intelligence, with human-in-the-loop assurance, delivers best-in-class data accuracy, turning unstructured emails into actionable intelligence. This, combined with an amazingly dedicated team, provides a strong foundation for expansion into new markets.
In the announcement, Herman Narula, Angel Investor, said:
Shipping is a high-consequence industry traditionally governed by vast amounts of fragmented, unstructured data. By choosing the more rigorous, multi-model path, Spot Ship has developed a unique capability to extract the intelligence buried in these communications with definitive reliability. It is a technical feat that creates a deeply defensible moat, and I am delighted to continue supporting the team as they turn this structural advantage into a new global standard.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, James Kellett, Co-founder & CEO at Spot Ship, said:
Our mission is to bring 21st-century speed to a centuries-old industry. Ventures.eu shares that vision and has delivered value from day one. Their ability to bridge the gap between a startup and global shipping giants has already resulted in new customers and investors, and we’re thrilled to have them leading this round as we modernise ship chartering globally.
Kellett frames the product as a commercial tool for the incumbent maritime industry rather than a speculative lab project, emphasising customer traction and practical deployment.
The bigger picture
The deal is another example of investors backing operationally focused, data-driven solutions in logistics. The move highlights ongoing interest from supply chain investors in AI tools that tackle longstanding industry inefficiencies by converting unstructured operational data into decision-ready information.
Digital adoption in shipping has lagged behind other transport sectors, but momentum is growing as carriers and brokers seek to cut costs and improve reliability. For startups addressing maritime logistics, demonstrating clear commercial benefit to large customers remains the fastest route to traction.
Spot Ship’s funding, product claims and early customer adoption will be watched by investors and shipping firms alike as the industry assesses whether software-first approaches can meaningfully speed up chartering and reduce operational waste across UK and European maritime networks.
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