The Irish fintech taking aim at shipping’s late-payment problem
More than 80 per cent of global trade moves by sea, but when it comes to getting paid, much of the freight world still relies on manual processes and slow, traditional banking. Irish start-up Harbour AI believes the industry’s cash-flow headaches—late invoices, slow reconciliation, and clunky debtor management—can be solved with a modern, open-banking approach tailored to freight forwarders and their partners.
The late-payment bottleneck
Freight forwarders, third-party logistics providers and customs brokers often operate on thin margins and complex, multi-party workflows. When payments arrive late, everything downstream slows—credit lines tighten, growth plans stall, and staff are pulled into manual follow-ups. Harbour AI’s core thesis is simple: make paying effortless and late payments fall. Make it complicated and payers delay.
A fintech platform designed for freight
Harbour AI offers a payments and collections layer built for logistics. The platform uses open banking to streamline payments, automates invoice reconciliation, and provides a modern dashboard with full visibility over cash position and debtor status. It also supports agent-led collections and integrates directly with transport management systems (TMS), reducing the need to swivel between tools and spreadsheets.
According to the company, customers see late payments drop by more than half when moving to this flow. The intended result is stronger working capital, fewer write-offs, and a cleaner path to scale for operators that have historically struggled to unlock cash tied up in receivables.
In the flow, not holding the funds
Rather than becoming a regulated payments institution, Harbour AI works with licensed electronic money institutions to move funds. That means the platform orchestrates and streamlines the payment experience without directly holding client money. The approach is designed to speed time to market, leverage proven banking infrastructure, and reduce compliance overhead while maintaining robust security and control.
From accelerator to industry focus
Harbour AI’s founders met in an Irish startup accelerator, combining commercial and deep-tech expertise. One co-founder brings machine learning research and experience at major technology firms; the other draws on years in sales and growth roles across ecommerce, venture-backed startups and fintech, including time spent exploring container finance. That blend of research-driven engineering and go-to-market execution shaped a product specific to the needs—and realities—of freight forwarding.
The early team also includes an engineer recruited from the same accelerator, and the company was incorporated earlier this year. Their shared motivation: freight is vast, essential, and still underserved by purpose-built financial software.
Winning over a traditional industry
Logistics is famously conservative, with established workflows and long-standing relationships. Harbour AI acknowledges that change management is part of the job. Yet as more operators digitise and a new generation of leaders prioritises real-time financial visibility, the company believes adoption is accelerating. Early pilot users reportedly see faster payments, smoother reconciliation and improved cash flow—benefits that make a compelling case for staying on the platform.
Pilots, pricing and product
The company is running 90-day pilots to prove value quickly. After the trial, customers transition to a monthly subscription that scales with the transaction volume processed through the platform. This usage-aligned model aims to match pricing with outcomes and keep entry barriers low. On the product side, the roadmap focuses on deeper TMS integrations, richer analytics and automation that removes repetitive finance tasks while providing audit-grade transparency.
Funding and milestones
Harbour AI has secured initial support, including funding from national startup programmes and pre-seed backing. With interest from investors, the team is preparing to raise a larger round to accelerate product development, expand integrations and support go-to-market across key logistics hubs.
Why this matters now
Freight forwarding is a global industry with more than 100,000 companies, and that figure grows when you include warehousing, brokers and other logistics providers. In an environment of tight margins and volatile demand, cash is oxygen. By reducing late payments, automating reconciliation and giving finance teams and operations leaders a single source of truth, Harbour AI is aiming to replace friction with flow—and turn a chronic industry pain point into a competitive advantage.
The opportunity is clear: modernise how logistics gets paid, and the world’s supply chains move not just goods, but money, faster and with greater confidence.
