Thietus, technology research and innovation consultancy, launched a report according to which over $1 billion was invested in technology companies working in the maritime sector in 2019.
Accordingly, the report highlights that startups and scaleups collected $1.14 billion in the shipping sector, playing a major contribution in the economy.
Yet, Thietus focuses on the $1 billion investment in Flexport, led by Softbank’s Vision Fund. Therefore, if Flexport’s contribution is removed from the figures, venture funding in the industry actually declined by 24%, from $190m in 2018 to $144m in 2019.
Overall, 8% fewer deals were made through the year compared with 2018, though the average size of deals has increased by 18% from $2.2million to $2.7million in 2019.
Moreover, Nick Chubb commented that the decrease in the investments coupled with the increased average size of each round shows that the market is at the early stages of maturing.
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In addition, the report also revealed that there was a 60% rise in the number of venture funds dedicated to maritime, logistics, and trade operating around the world, in the past 18 months. Also, trade facilitation startups attract investors, whereas ship operations, ship management, and port management startups receiving a much smaller proportion of total funding.
Concluding, 2020 will see many technological developments, amongst which will be API integrations, artificial intelligence, and Greentech are the technology trends set to have the biggest impact on the industry in 2020.
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