FourKites announces acquisition of Haven and new Dynamic Ocean offering

Chicago-based FourKites, a provider of real-time tracking and visibility solutions across transportation modes and digital platforms, said today it has acquired Haven Inc., a company that automates logistics processes, for ocean freight companies, commodity traders, food producers, and other large shippers.

Through this acquisition, FourKites also announced it has rolled out a new offering, entitled Dynamic Ocean, which it described as a next-gen visibility offering for the end-to-end management for international ocean shipments, adding that Dynamic Ocean builds on technologies acquired by bringing Haven into the fold.  

And it added that Dynamic Ocean meshes advanced document capabilities, robust collaboration features and support for bookings and end-to-end real-time tracking, providing customers with an expedited flow of goods through busy ports, significantly reducing detention and demurrage costs, and improved customer satisfaction. What’s more, it added that Dynamic Ocean covers 99% of global container traffic and more than 750 ports, which it said provides unprecedented visibility into ocean shipments, coupled with comprehensive APIs that enable data sharing between Dynamic Ocean and other shipper systems like TMS and ERP platforms.

Mathew Elenjickal, CEO of FourKites, told LM that organizations that engage in international trade are looking for comprehensive end-to-end visibility, which includes visibility into the overall process that goes before and after a container gets on a ship or a plane. 

“And specifically when it comes to ocean visibility, container tracking is really only half of the puzzle,” he said. “So as were looking build our next-generation ocean platform, we wanted to partner with an organization that shares the same vision, someone who really understands the complexities and nuances of ocean shipments so that we could not only address gaps in visibility, but address challenges in ocean shipping, including antiquated, manual workflows, document management, and difficult collaboration with partners.” 

As for what made Haven an attractive acquisition target, Elenjickal observed that Haven was an ideal partner to help FourKites bring this vision to reality.

“With the Haven solution and team, we have expanded our capabilities and expertise for ocean and air modes, and together, we can very rapidly build industry-first solutions that help our customers resolve their biggest pain points,” he said. By layering FourKites’ advanced real-time visibility capabilities on top of market-leading features from Haven, we’re thrilled to introduce Dynamic Ocean, the only platform on the market that combines document management, collaboration, support for bookings and real-time tracking all in one platform. It’s an incredibly seamless, modern and fully digitized solution that brings all components of a comprehensive ocean tracking solution into one platform. Dynamic Ocean offers the highest levels of tracking and accuracy in the market, in addition to the documentation management, workflow and collaboration features, and booking management capabilities that will allow them to digitize and better manage their end-to-end international ocean shipments.”

When asked what Dynamic Ocean brings go the FourKites’ service portfolio that was previously lacking, Elenjickal explained that Dynamic Ocean is the only solution that provides visibility into the end to end process of international trade.

“It combines document management, collaboration, support for bookings with real-time end-to-end ocean tracking all in one platform,” he said. “In speaking with our customers, they told us time and time again that they were not getting what they needed when it came to end-to-end ocean tracking. So we built Dynamic Ocean in order to give them the full picture—from booking support, through container shipments and track-and-trace, securing the correct documentation at the right time and, finally, to final destination.”  

Brad Klaus, CEO at Haven, said in a statement that Haven is thrilled to bring its team and expertise in SaaS, supply chain and ocean tracking to FourKites, a company that pioneered real-time freight visibility and that shares Haven’s vision for more automated, collaborative supply chains.

“There is nothing like Dynamic Ocean in the market,” said Klaus. “It is a true game-changer for organizations that ship internationally via ocean.”