Ex-employees launch new ventures as group closes digital freight marketplace, part of a wider restructuring programme
Logistics and ports company DP World has confirmed it plans to close its cargo shipping platform SeaRates, as part of a wider reorganisation of its digital services.
The platform, which was first launched in 2005, was created as an international freight marketplace designed to digitise bookings and help customers ship goods – including refrigerated products like fruit and vegetables – anywhere in the world.
“Reorganisation and restructuring are a normal part of managing a global business,” a spokesperson for DP World told Fruitnet. “Our business priorities have evolved, and as part of the normal course of reviewing and simplifying our operations, we are no longer using the SeaRates business globally.”
Fruitnet understands that some of the division’s management team have embarked on a separate venture called Navo24.
Alexei Shatunov, who until April was senior general manager of SeaRates, posted on LinkedIn that he had started the new company with SeaRates’ former COO Stefan Rogovskiy to help the “millions of logistics professionals” who used the group’s tools over the years.
Navo24’s services include tools for track services, schedules, loading, and freight rates. “And more are on the way,” Shatunov added, “practical tools that industry professionals can rely on every single day to simply get the job done.”
In the meantime, Sergey Dzhashytov, who is listed as the founder of SeaRates on its website, has established QubicTron to supply what he described as “a new generation of services” built using “AI, automation, real-time data, and modern digital infrastructure for logistics and maritime trade”.
In a separate LinkedIn post, Dzhashytov said there would be clear differences between his new venture and DP World’s discontinued service.
“SeaRates historically followed a somewhat different model: the platform provided IT technologies to freight forwarders, remained open to cooperation with different logistics providers, and built digital alliances connecting independent participants across the industry,” he commented.
“In my view, these are two different approaches to digital logistics that were not easy to develop under a single strategy. Today, companies that relied on SeaRates digital services are looking for alternatives.”
