SURFF
Real-time ocean freight comparison and online booking.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
* | N/A | Seed | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
SURFF Company Inc., operating as SURFF, is a maritime logistics platform designed to address inefficiencies in the South Korean shipping market. The company was established as a spin-off from a Hyundai Motor Group internal venture program by founder and CEO, Seonjin Choi. Choi, who previously worked for approximately six years in global forwarding at Hyundai Glovis, experienced firsthand the opaque and inefficient processes reliant on email and phone calls that characterized the shipping industry. This experience motivated him to leverage IT and data to create a more streamlined and rational logistics environment.
The company's core offering is a marketplace that allows users to compare real-time sea freight rates from various shipping liners and forwarders and make online reservations, similar to how a service like Skyscanner works for air travel. This platform connects shipping companies, forwarders, and import/export businesses, enabling them to trade available shipping capacity (container space). The business model has two main pillars: a marketplace for matching shipping space and a shipping data service. Revenue is generated through this matching platform and by providing customized, processed shipping data to corporate clients on a subscription basis, with one such contract valued at 20 million won annually.
SURFF's platform provides freight rate comparisons, real-time booking, cargo tracking, and arrival/departure notifications. It also features a data dashboard service, SURFF Terminal, which visualizes container data and key shipping indices to offer market insights. The company has received seed funding from investors including the Hyundai Zero1 Fund, Hyundai Glovis, and Korea Investment Accelerator. Since its official spin-off in February 2023, SURFF has won multiple awards, including the grand prize at the 'KDB 2022 Start-Up' contest and was selected for the TIPS program by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
Keywords: maritime logistics, freight marketplace, shipping data, freight forwarding, ocean freight, cargo booking, supply chain, logistics platform, real-time rates, cargo tracking