LOS ANGELES and LONDON, August 29, 2023 – Marlin Equity Partners (“Marlin”) is pleased to announce that it has acquired ShipServ Ltd. (“ShipServ”), a leading maritime software procurement platform and marketplace. Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, ShipServ enables maritime buyers to streamline their procurement processes through digitization and increased efficiency, while simultaneously providing suppliers access to consolidated demand, improved procurement flow and an array of value-added services. ShipServ will be merged with Marcura, an existing Marlin portfolio company, to deliver an innovative customer centric platform built for the Blue Economy. Marcura’s proficiency in payments and compliance solutions adds a significant dimension to ShipServ’s offerings, creating an end-to-end procurement to payment suite.
“The combination of Marcura and ShipServ creates an industry-leading vertical software, data, payments and procurement platform focused on the maritime sector. Our extensive blue-chip customer base spans the world’s largest commodity shipping, container and cruise line organizations,” said Jens Poulsen, CEO of Marcura. “Both organizations share a foundation based on industry expertise and unwavering customer satisfaction, which will drive our joint product evolution, enhancing value across our customer base.”
“We are looking forward to joining forces with Marcura, which will allow us to further accelerate network adoption and reinforce our positioning within the joint company’s wider platform,” said Henrik Hyldahn, CEO of ShipServ. “Our integration with Marcura will enable our team to increase the long-term strategic value and product differentiation of ShipServ’s e-procurement offerings. By incorporating additional features such as payments, proprietary compliance data and settlement workflow, we can offer solutions to the industry’s growing need for digitalization, efficiency and compliance.”
“We are excited to support the combination of Marcura and ShipServ, two maritime industry leaders propelling synergistic and highly complementary business strategies,” said Jan-Olivier Fillols, a managing director at Marlin. “We believe that from both a customer and product perspective, our ability to offer a combined suite of solution sets will create a differentiator in the market.”
About Marlin Equity Partners
Marlin Equity Partners is a global investment firm with over $8.9 billion of capital under management. The firm is focused on providing corporate parents, shareholders and other stakeholders with tailored solutions that meet their business and liquidity needs. Marlin invests in businesses across multiple industries where its capital base, industry relationships and extensive network of operational resources significantly strengthen a company’s outlook and enhance value. Since its inception, Marlin, through its group of funds and related companies, has successfully completed over 200 acquisitions. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles, California with an additional office in London. For more information, please visit www.marlinequity.com.
About Marcura
The Marcura Group provides digital workflow solutions to the maritime industry, backed by constant operational support services and specialized cloud-based platforms managed by industry specialists. Marcura works closely with global customers and partners to produce integrated solutions to pervasive industry challenges, thereby jointly raising standards. Founded in 2001 on the principles of compliance, independence and transparency, the company is headquartered in Dubai with a global network of offices. The three current segments of the business are: (i) PortLog, voyage-optimization intelligence solutions; (ii) DA-Desk, the world’s largest port cost management company; (iii) MarTrust, the largest maritime payment processing company for secure, efficient, and compliant international payments to crew, port agencies and suppliers. The team of 850 people includes maritime operations experts, software developers, scientists, engineers, data analysts, payments specialists and compliance professionals from 45 different countries, who are all committed to supporting 700 leading maritime enterprises worldwide. For more information, please visit www.marcura.com.
Contacts:
Peter Spasov
(310) 364-0100
pspasov@marlinequity.com
Gasthalter & Co.
marlinequity@gasthalter.com