Voyager

Voyager Portal offers a configurable software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform designed to digitize and streamline voyage management for the bulk shipping industry. The company targets charterers, traders, manufacturers, and shippers in sectors such as renewable energy, commodity trading, mining, agriculture, and petrochemicals. Its business model is based on recurring revenue from annual software subscriptions, with pricing starting at $50,000 per year.

The company's origins trace back to an MBA research project in 2017 at IMD Business School. Co-founders Matthew Costello and Bret Smart, who had previously worked together at chemical tanker operator Stolt-Nielsen, identified significant inefficiencies in the maritime industry, where complex shipments were managed via email and spreadsheets. Their research indicated that about 40% of an operator's time was spent on low-value tasks. Officially founded in 2018 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Voyager Portal was created to provide a unified environment for all stakeholders to collaborate on managing the entire lifecycle of a shipment. The company has secured significant funding, including a $1.5 million seed round in 2019 and an $8.4 million Series A round in 2021, to expand its international presence and accelerate product development.

The founders' backgrounds are deeply rooted in the maritime and logistics sectors. Matthew Costello, CEO, gained experience in chartering, operations, and demurrage at Stolt-Nielsen in Singapore before pursuing his MBA at IMD, a school known for its connections to the shipping industry. Bret Smart, COO, has an academic foundation in Naval Architecture and Transportation from Webb Institute and MIT and worked in finance, strategy, and IT integration at Stolt-Nielsen after a stint at ExxonMobil's SeaRiver. Their combined hands-on industry experience directly informed the platform's development to address tangible operational pain points.

The core of Voyager Portal’s offering is a low-code, multi-party platform that centralizes the entire voyage workflow, from pre-fixture activities like demand planning and freight RFQs to post-fixture operations, including ETA tracking, document management, and demurrage settlement. Key features include real-time shipment visibility, automated workflows, and customizable dashboards. The platform's architecture allows clients to configure workflows to match their specific business processes, a differentiator from more rigid legacy systems. By integrating with a company's existing ERP or CTRM systems, it ensures seamless data flow. A significant focus is on reducing demurrage costs—fees for delays in loading or unloading—by providing data-driven insights for better decision-making. Recently, the company has begun incorporating AI to enhance freight and demurrage forecasting and to extract data from charter party contracts automatically.

Keywords: voyage management, demurrage automation, bulk shipping, commodity trading, maritime logistics, chartering software, supply chain tech, freight management, vessel tracking, pre-fixture, post-fixture, laytime calculation, marine supply chain, SaaS, logistics software, Houston tech, freight analytics, operational efficiency, shipping data, risk management, cost reduction