project44 Acquires Ocean Insights

project44, a global leader in supply chain visibility, has announced it has acquired Ocean Insights, solutions provider for ocean freight intelligence.

On the heels of massive customer and revenue growth in 2020, project44 acquires Ocean Insights to expand its ocean solution by adding the broadest container tracking capabilities in the market, as well as one-of-a-kind sailing schedule and ocean analytics products. Combining Ocean Insights’ tracking and analytics with the project44 platform and ecosystem establishes project44 as the clear market leader with an unrivaled set of multi-modal solutions for end-to-end supply chain visibility.

Surging global trade since the outset of the pandemic has resulted in massive disruptions in the global supply chain. Since March 2020, freight rates increased by as much as 174% due to the increased global demand for electronics, PPE goods and stay-at-home consumer products. At the same time, COVID-19 and other restrictions have caused significant port congestions, and rollover percentages have never been higher. To meet these global challenges and build resilience, supply chain leaders are adopting global freight visibility and digitalization.

While most visibility providers depend on third parties for ocean tracking data, Ocean Insights has built native integrations with shipping lines to ingest data directly from the source, giving customers the richest visibility across global containerized ocean shipments. Ocean Insights also offers unique data analytics, providing customers advanced insight into unforeseen events and overall shipping trends.

Headquartered in Germany and founded in 2012, Ocean Insights pioneered ocean freight visibility by combining carrier data, live vessel tracking and sailing schedule data in one data-rich platform. Tracking 350,000 containers daily, Ocean Insights provides track and trace functionality across the vast majority of shipping lines, 700 seaports, and more than 5,000 vessels as well as handling over five million sailing schedule changes per day.

Ocean Insights customers include International Food Group (Sysco), Pernod Ricard, FourKites and other leading enterprises in automotive, manufacturing, food & beverage, commodity trading, chemical and freight forwarding. Many already leverage both Ocean Insights and project44 such as DB Schenker, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel, Lenovo, and Mondi Group.

“Ocean freight is a linchpin for global supply chains. For organizations shipping internationally, the lack of ocean visibility can start a costly domino effect throughout the supply chain,” said Jett McCandless, Founder and CEO of project44. “Ocean Insights has dominated the container tracking space and we look forward to providing the industry not only the best ocean capabilities, but also the most comprehensive end-to-end visibility platform.”

“At Ocean Insights, our mission has been to make supply chain data visible and actionable through best-in-class software and our team of experts,” said Felix Richter, CEO and CTO of Ocean Insights. “Joining project44 is the next natural step to building the multi-modal visibility solution that global supply chains need. By combining the expertise and technology of project44 and Ocean Insights, shippers and logistics services providers will unlock predictive insights across the globe.”

“We’ve had enormous success at Ocean Insights growing our business, and we had multiple options for a strategic exit,” said Robin Jaacks, Chief Customer Officer of Ocean Insights. “After meeting Jett and the entre project44 team, however, we were impressed with the vision, integrity and culture of the team. It became obvious that project44 was the right partner for us.”

Today, project44 offers the world’s largest over-the-road carrier network with connections to more than 800 ELD/telematics devices. With project44’s leading over-the-road, rail, and air visibility solutions, the acquisition will expand ocean visibility capabilities and offer the most complete, end-to-end, global and multi-modal supply chain visibility solution.