The story behind how our company was founded
We simply love ships – especially when they are efficient. We started our company back in 2016 in the strong believe that the transition to a more efficient shipping is inevitable.
The founders of We4Sea, Michiel Katgert and Dan Veen, met at TNO, the Dutch Organisation of Applied Scientific Research. We were working together in a European project, using big data analytics to enhance shipping efficiency. And we developed some cool technology!
Because we really believed in the technology and the approach we had developed, we launched the idea at Venture Scan, an internal TNO-project to validate our business plan. After winning the Venture Scan, we were granted a spot on the growth-program Port Innovation Lab, hosted by Accelerator YES!Delft. Successfully finishing that route, we decided to make the jump and start our company: We4Sea.
Over the years, we increasingly moved our focus to support charterers. This focus on charterers has resulted in the development of specific products and services meeting the needs of these clients. These services enable them to better select vessels, and monitor, benchmark, evaluate and optimize the performance of their vessels. Also, we support them in making performance assessments and claims.
In 2025, following years of growth, We4Sea continues under existing management, with Jelmer de Weerd as new CEO and Ernst van der Putten as CFO. Both founders are still connected as shareholders.
We continue our journey with the aim to help our clients to sail their ships more efficiently. A goal in which we look for strong cooperation with our customers. We want to do so in a straight-forward way in line with our values below.
