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Zero Emission Ocean Transportation

Backed by these top-tier investors:
sosv
fttf
Hero background hublod ship Hero background Hublod's ship

Zero Emission Ocean Transportation

Backed by these top-tier investors:
sosv
fttf
We develop a novel ship to transport freight 100% emission-free , on-demand and cheaper than today.
Scroll down to discover how it works
Scroll down to discover how it works
Company

Welcome to Hublod, where engineering excellence meets innovation

welcome to Hublod
Hublod's team

We are a tech startup from Munich reinventing how goods are transported across the ocean.

Since our inception in 2020, we have been dedicated to pioneering groundbreaking technology solutions for the future of transport and logistics. Spun out of the Technical University of Munich as one of the world-leading institutions for robotics and automation, our team combines German engineering tradition with the fast development cycles of a startup.

More about us
Problem

Ocean shipping is the cheapest way to transport goods, but...

Hublod's problems

…not reliable due to a lack of resilience

One single incident such as a ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal or a labor strike in a port shuts down major parts of global shipping, leads to massive congestion and ultimately causes damages in the billions in just a few days.

hublod problems

…not sustainable

Ships run on heavy fuel oil, the dirtiest fuel in the world, making global shipping responsible for nearly 1 Gigatonne of CO2 emissions per year. That's more than all of Germany combined.

hublod problems

…only for standard routes

Ultra-Large Vessels with more than 15.000 containers are very cost - efficient, but only 5% of ports have sufficient infrastructure for such vessels. On every other route, small, less cost efficient ships are in use, leading up to twice as high transport costs.

hublod problems

…not customer-oriented

Having to serve thousands of customers with a single ship makes individualized routing and just-in-time delivery impossible for shipping companies, forcing hublod owners to keep expensive inventory.

Hublod's problems

…slow

98% of ports are not directly connected. Time intensive stops and transshipments add unnecessary transportation time.

Solution

Our sustainable answer are autonomous micro ships

Hublod's solution

We are developing the sailing ship of the 21st century. Our innovative ship concept utilizes wind energy as its mean efficiency that has never been seen before.

Hublod's ship

Decentralized
trade

Better use of existing infrastructure with point to point connections between even the smallest ports in the world avoids bottlenecks in large ports and makes sure that any incident causes minimal disruption.

Individualized
service

Micro ships enable a taxi-like service for shipping to replace today's fixed schedules: any route, on-demand, fully traceable and just-in-time for cargo owners of every size, from startup to corporate.

Direct
transport

1.5x higher operation speed, no unnecessary stops, no transshipments to enable up to 40% time savings compared to today's transport times.

Emission-free
propulsion concept

We only rely on clean and free wind energy to propel our newly designed ship without forcing our customers to compromise on transportation cost.

Shifting the paradigm from large inflexible freight ships

Freight ship

to small autonomous micro ships

Micro ship
Micro ship Micro ship Micro ship
Micro ship Micro ship Micro ship Micro ship Micro ship

for the benefit of the $400 billion ocean shipping industry.

Background
Technology

Our new ship class is the cheapest way to fully decarbonize commercial freight shipping

Emission-free
during operation

Up to 70%
lower operating cost

16 containers
capacity

Autonomous operation

No fueling or charging infrastructure needed

Ship
Why us

Transforming a 500-year-old, $400B market

Let's discuss today!

Patented Technology

Our ship design with its unique combination of components and our control algorithms as magic glue for the components are first of its kind.

Unlimited market opportunity

The Hublod technology knows no geographical limit and no limit to container shipping. From island transport in Indonesia to bulker shipping in the North Sea, many market segments can be opened up with one technology.

Massive Scalability

We aim to bring economies of scale to the production of ships. Inspired by the highly automated production lines of the automotive industry, we want to transform shipbuilding from single designs to mass production of identical ships.

Investors & Supporters

Trusted by top
Partners & Supporters

Partner with us today
HAX logo
ESA logo
Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs of Germany logo
TUM logo
Fraunhofer CML logo
Microsoft for Startup logo
KIC logo
Unternehmertum logo
Digital hub Logistics logo
HAX logo
ESA logo
Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs of Germany logo
TUM logo
Fraunhofer CML logo
Microsoft for Startup logo
KIC logo
Unternehmertum logo
Digital hub Logistics logo

Investors

4 upcoming investors

SOSV logo
FTTF logo
FAQ

Quick answers to questions you may have

Can't find what you're looking for?
Contact us here:
[email protected]
Do you build the entire ship in-house?

No. Our ships are built after our own design, but we cooperate with ship yards for the manufacturing of the ship. Our core IP is control and intelligence software.

What if there is no wind?

The kite operates at ~300m and harvests so-called high altitude winds. High altitude winds are much stronger and more constant than winds near the ground and have a 95% probability of occurrence offshore globally. Additionally, we analyze weather data systematically and use our own route planning tool to calculate the optimal route for our ships and thereby avoid areas with no wind. As last fallback option there is still a battery and electric motor.

Are your ships already in operation?

No, we are still in development. We will start accepting pre-orders for ships in Q3/2024.

Why don't you retrofit Airborne Wind Energy Systems/ kites to ships?
While we do leverage learnings and technological development that companies such as Airseas, Skysails and others have made in the field of Airborne Wind Energy systems, there is two reasons why we have decided to source kites from existing suppliers and integrate them in an entirely new ship concept. For one, the emission savings potential of freight ships retrofitted with kites is 30%, while we enable 100% emission-free transport. Second, we believe that using a large fleet of small ships is the smarter way to transport goods overseas.
Where can these ships operate?
There is no maximum reach and no geographical limit. Our ships can operate on any route at any time. Check out the route planner demo to try your own example routes.
What type of freight can I transport with your ship?
Our main focus is on transporting containers. However, the ship design can be easily adapted to break bulk, ro-ro and project hublod. Reach out to us to learn more.
I regularly transport containers overseas. How do I benefit from using Hublod ships?
You benefit from using Hublod ships to transport your shipping in three ways: (i) lower scope III emissions (iI) faster transport (iii) lower supply chain management costs due to more transparency, less inventory and lower share of road and air freight.

Want to know exact numbers? Reach out to our team for a free initial consulting .
I'm a shipping company. Why would I replace my existing vessels with Hublod vessels?
The lifetime costs of operating a small fleet of Hublod ships as a replacement for an existing conventional vessel are lower and you still offer better service to your customer. Especially on smaller trades, several of our pilot partners could identify the potential to increase their profit margin by up to 12%. Finally, our ships are guaranteed to be compliant with all existing and future emission regulations.