Remember Me? Your Innovation Buddy Returns with a Money – Saving Solution

Berlin-based startup Northbound, a venture initially supported and accelerated by Schenker Ventures and the DB SCHENKER Partner MVP Factory, has completed a pre-seed financing round, raising 1.3 million euros. The company is developing a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that protects companies from million-dollar container penalty fees (D&D fees). The platform optimizes the flow of goods from port to warehouse, considering capacities and delivery commitments. The funding will be used to expand the platform’s AI capabilities, grow the team, and acquire more customers.

Andreas Canel, Co-Founder & CEO, Northbound: “Working with DB SCHENKER gave us direct access to industry professionals to validate our early problem statements and helped tremendously in building a solution to a problem that actually matters.”

But wait, what exactly are D&D fees? Imagine this: your container arrives at the port, ready to roll into a DB SCHENKER warehouse. But due to delays, miscommunication, or plain bad luck, it gets stuck for a bit too long. Those extra days? They come with a price tag – Demurrage and Detention Fees or D&D fees.

What does Northbound do?

Northbound offers companies an intuitive dashboard that provides real-time data on the location, status, and impending D&D fees of containers. This enables prioritized and coordinated management of container shipments, optimized flows of goods, and fulfilled delivery commitments.

Erik Wirsing, VP Global Innovation, at DB SCHENKER: "Northbound offers importers completely new capabilities. Instead of manually tracking containers, the real-time transparency and automated invoice verification enable a drastic and cost-effective reduction of demurrage & detention costs.”

Successful software validation with a major German sportswear manufacturer

In its software validation phase, Northbound proved that over 90 percent of D&D costs within two months could have been avoided through the increased transparency and optimized control that its AI solution offers. 

Northbound’s algorithm automatically flags incorrect invoices, enabling disputes on up to 20 percent of all invoices and preventing unjustified payments. According to DB SCHENKER and numerous customer interviews, oftentimes the majority of D&D fees can be avoided. Most of these costs are not caused by actual obstacles such as lack of capacity or delays in customs clearance, but by a lack of awareness and suboptimal planning.

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