Speys and Shipitwise join forces to lead digitalisation of the logistics market

Speys, a Finland-based Digital Party Logistics (DPL) operator focusing on automation of logistics, and the Estonian startup Shipitwise have announced the planned merger of their business operations.

Joined together, the Finnish and Estonian companies will provide digital logistic solutions that enable manufacturers and retailers to outsource some operations to virtual teams and automated tools.

Speys will acquire the Shipitwise assets, people and customer contracts and the merged business will operate under the Speys brand. Shipitwise founders and investors will get about 25 percent of Speys, and all technical ex-employees are returning with options collectively worth around 7 percent of Speys.

Shipitwise, founded in 2015, set out to build a shipping aggregator that would provide an instant dynamic shipping price to anyone, later pivoting to build software that helps bring shipping firms online. Earlier this year, founder and CEO Aleksander Gansen ceded that the startup wasn’t disrupting the logistics market as it hoped, citing how bloated industry titans are resistant to transparency and dismissive of digitalisation and the customer experience. The big firms simply wouldn’t adopt the startup's SaaS platform or API.

Speys, however, sees the value. Commenting on the acquisition, founder and CEO Jouko Sipilä said: “Shipitwise offers an exciting opportunity for Speys to strengthen and expand its service offering. With the knowledge and technology to bring shipping firms online, the acquisition of Shipitwise supports the Speys strategy to lead the market and meet the future requirements for a single provider to automate logistics of everything.”

Gansen also commented: “Speys’ acquisition of Shipitwise provides a major growth opportunity for both our businesses through an extended service offering for our clients. As organisations begin their transition to optimise and digitise their logistics operations, we will be best positioned to support them on that journey.” Gansen will join Speys as head of the Digitalisation division.

A Speys spokesperson said further details of the deal will be cemented by the end of the month. A joint fundraising effort will lock down the final value.