Shipnext has secured a substantial, multi-year grant from Belgian government agency Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) to strengthen the adoption of predictive analytics and Artificial Intelligence in the supply chain.
In particular, a dedicated team based at Shipnext’s headquarters in Antwerp is going to embark on an ambitious project to develop a supply chain volatility forecast.
The platform’s users will be able to understand likely transportation costs several weeks in advance, as well as anticipated demand for shipping assets, according to Shipnext.
Moreover, a new algorithm will be created, making use of various freight matrices and a range of data sources for specialised commodity trade-related analytics.
According to Shipnext, “The project, initially designed for users shipping commodities such as steel, coal, chemicals and agricultural products, will utilise natural language processing, machine learning, big-data analysis and predictive analytics.”
Shipnext will receive an initial grant of around US$420,000 in the coming months. Over the next five years, further funding will be provided by VLAIO, which aims to stimulate entrepreneurship in the Flanders region by supporting innovative businesses with financial subsidies.
“Back in 2016, Shipnext saw that the shipping industry was drowning in emails – it was obvious that processing freight requests manually could not go on forever,” said Alexander Varvarenko, founder and CEO of Shipnext.
