Clarksons-owned vessel fixture platform Sea/ has secured more software development power with its second acquisition in a month.
The UK-based operation has bought Polish maritime technology company Setapp, which has about 50 staff in Poznan.
The move comes after Sea/ agreed to acquire Sweden’s Chinsay in October, merging the freight contract management platform’s services into Sea/’s digital operations.
Sea/ chief executive Peter Schroder told TradeWinds the idea behind the Setapp deal is to build a centre of maritime technology excellence.
Setapp is already a technology provider to a number of maritime organisations.
“They have this unique combination of being able to develop technology and excellent understanding of the maritime space. That’s why we find it interesting to work with these guys,” he said.
“I’ve worked with them before in my previous role at Maersk Tankers, so we have a long relationship with them, we understand them, we trust them, we understand the talent they have access to.”
Schroder said it is difficult to find the right people in today’s market, but Setapp has access to a broad base of potential recruits because Poznan is a university city.
“They have a lot of new software developers coming out of the Poznan universities, and access in wider Poland,” he told TradeWinds.
Ring-fenced work
The Polish company will continue to provide services to third parties whose projects will be ring-fenced from any other work being executed.
“Setapp has a number of customers today and they will continue to work with those customers and hopefully attract more customers,” Schroder said.
“At the same time, we will build a whole department for Sea/ when it comes to our software development.”
Sea/ serves charterers, brokers and shipowners, and is used for 34,000 fixtures each year across a range of markets, including more than 80% of the seaborne iron ore trade.
Setapp will be owned by Clarksons-owned Maritech, the entity behind Sea/.
The Polish operation will form one of six development hubs, adding to bases in Birmingham, London and Copenhagen, and now Stockholm and Singapore through Chinsay.
The plan is to centre recruitment around those hubs and attract talent on a global scale.
Deal hatched over coffee
The deal has been months in the making.
“I had a coffee with the owner back when I joined Sea/ [in April]. We talked about the difficulty in terms of finding the right teams,” Schroder said.
“Then we said, ‘Why don’t we leverage this together, where we service third-party customers and build a team specifically for Sea/’.”
The Chinsay and Setapp acquisitions are being paid for through bank finance.
“We are fortunate that we have an owner that is willing to invest into this business area and can see the logic of making this move,” the CEO said.
And more could still be to come.
“We are active on the M&A side. Whenever there are acquisitions that make sense, we evaluate them. We are constantly evaluating opportunities.”
