DP World is closing SeaRates, the online freight booking and rate-comparison platform it acquired in 2020. The Dubai-based port and logistics group confirmed in late August that it is discontinuing what it described as its standalone digital logistics platform, telling FreightWaves that reorganisation is a normal part of running a global business and that it is no longer using the SeaRates business globally.
SeaRates, launched in 2005, ran as a third-party marketplace: forwarders and shippers used it for quotes, bookings, tracking, rate management and white-label tools. At the time of the first reports the site was still live, with no announcement on it or on DP World’s own site.
A neutral marketplace inside a logistics group
When DP World bought SeaRates, it presented the deal as a step towards end-to-end, digitally enabled logistics. Six years on, the group appears to have chosen a different path: building its logistics offer under its own name rather than running an open marketplace alongside it. FreightWaves suggested the closure may signal a narrower focus on platforms integrated with DP World’s core logistics, terminal and cargo-flow operations, and supply-chain analysts at Hylios described it as part of a wider trend of large operators folding acquired technology into their core systems.
DP World already sells logistics online under its own brand. Its DP World Logistics website offers freight forwarding, container shipping and cargo tracking, with bookings made directly on the site. Because SeaRates belonged to DP World, its technology was the group’s own to use as it chose.
That left a tension built into the model. A marketplace that serves every forwarder sits awkwardly inside a group that also sells logistics services to the same customers.
A booking platform is only neutral until its owner starts selling the same freight.
The founder starts again
SeaRates’ founder, Sergey Dzhashytov, said on LinkedIn that he had been receiving questions about the discontinuation of SeaRates services from customers looking for alternatives. According to his public profile, his operating role at DP World ended in March 2026 and his time as founder and chief executive of SeaRates in May.
Qubictron, which Dzhashytov leads as founder and chief executive, describes itself as a logistics technology company built from scratch rather than a rebuild of SeaRates. Alongside tracking, vessel schedule and API products, it runs the Qubics Club, a network in which forwarders share coverage, extend their reach and keep their own customers. That puts it in direct competition with DP World’s Digital Freight Alliance, the forwarder network that grew out of SeaRates.
What to watch
- What happens to SeaRates users, their data and the Digital Freight Alliance; DP World has not said.
- Whether SeaRates’ booking functions reappear inside DP World’s own logistics platforms.
- How quickly forwarders move to independent networks such as the Qubics Club.
