Singapore authorities have awarded Thome Ship Management a grant to help create an Amazon-like marketplace for the shipping sector.
The funding will help finance the development of a smart digital e-marketplace platform to create an ecosystem. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Thome said the concept is designed to benefit the whole maritime supply chain and foster lasting partnerships between suppliers and the platform’s consortia members.
The new platform will streamline often very cumbersome procedures and protocols by creating a digital marketplace where suppliers and purchasers will have full transparency, the ship manager said.
“The aim of this project is to create an Amazon-like marketplace where ship operators will have access to fair pricing with good geographical coverage of supply,” said Thome Ship Management supply chain vice-president Peter Schellenberger.
“Suppliers will not have to waste time sending out quotes as pricing will be standardised across different sectors creating value-driven stock keeping and ease of handling.”
Schellenberger said the platform will use “the latest technology” to create intuitive functionality and will include reporting systems using AI analytics so suppliers and ship operators can work more efficiently.
Kenneth Lim, assistant chief executive (Industry), MPA said: “We fully support this project in modernising and automating the ship supplies value chain process that fosters trust and transparency between suppliers and purchasers.
“There is great momentum in digitalising and using technologies such as 3D printing and drone deliveries.”
This looks to be the second maritime procurement start-up in Singapore to receive financial backing in as many weeks.
In mid-March, Marina Hadjipateras-backed venture capital firm TMV led a funding round for Singapore-headquartered ShipsKart which raised $2.7m in Series A funding.
The round was led by TMV and Hermes Offshore, with strategic investments from the likes of Motion Ventures, Tradeworks.vc and Eternia Investments.
ShipsKart was founded by master mariner captain Dhruv Sawhney, along with co-founders Sunny Bagla and Vivek Sahi and claims to have already processed more than 2,000 orders globally.
