Image Credit: dbxcommodities.com

Maritime dry-bulk commodity trading covering coal, iron ore, bauxite, agriculture, steel, is historically opaque and lagging. Traders are saddled with partial data: customs filings, delayed national statistics, or narrow vessel tracking, leaving critical time gaps. DBX addresses this by merging satellite and thermal imaging with AI to provide real-time, high-resolution insights across the supply chain, especially crucial when maritime logistics are the backbone for moving bulk commodities globally. This solves for the “veil of opacity” in seaborne trade, enabling timely decisions for traders, shipping coordinators, and commodity executives.

DBX Commodities was founded in 2020 by Alexandre (Alex) Claude, a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in commodity trading, particularly in the dry-bulk sector. Before establishing DBX, Claude worked extensively with market intelligence and supply chain analysis, gaining deep expertise in integrating physical and digital trade insights. Under his leadership, DBX was incubated by Signal Ventures, part of the Signal Group, which provided not only financial backing but also access to advanced maritime analytics technology, recruitment support, and data infrastructure. Alongside Claude, the company’s leadership includes Giorgos Gerakakis (Head of Product), Panos Sourtzinos (Head of Data Science), and Theodosia Zervou (Head of Technology), each bringing domain-specific expertise that has been instrumental in shaping DBX’s data-driven approach to dry-bulk commodity intelligence.

Since its inception in 2020, DBX Commodities has attracted strategic investment and incubation support primarily from Signal Ventures, the venture arm of Signal Group, which provided not only seed capital but also critical technological, data, and operational resources during its early growth stage. According to PitchBook, DBX later secured approximately USD 668,000 in seed funding from Focus Ventures and Hiventures, strengthening its capacity to expand its satellite-powered, AI-driven analytics platform for the dry-bulk commodities sector. This combination of strategic incubation and targeted financial backing has enabled DBX to scale its coverage to over 95% of global dry-bulk flows while advancing projects like the ESA-supported SPECTRUM system.

DBX Commodities’ portfolio centers on its advanced analytics platform, which integrates satellite imagery, thermal sensing, vessel tracking, and trade data to deliver real-time visibility of global dry-bulk commodity flows such as coal, iron ore, bauxite, agricultural products, and steel. For seafarers, this technology supports more accurate voyage planning, berth scheduling, and cargo readiness by providing up-to-date port inventories, vessel arrival forecasts, and loading timelines reducing idle time and operational uncertainty. For shipping companies and commodity traders, DBX enables smarter sourcing decisions, optimized fleet deployment, risk mitigation, and faster response to market shifts, ultimately improving profitability and supply chain resilience in the competitive maritime trade environment.

DBX Commodities’ system continuously monitors production sites, stockpiles, port terminals, and vessel movements, detecting changes in cargo volumes, loading rates, and storage capacities. In maritime applications, this means tracking the “from mine to market” journey, identifying when a shipment leaves an origin port, estimating its arrival at the destination, and forecasting discharge schedules with high accuracy. Its SPECTRUM platform, developed with the European Space Agency, can even detect operational status at industrial facilities such as steel mills or power plants, allowing maritime stakeholders to anticipate demand surges or slowdowns. 

Image Credit: dbxcommodities.com

DBX Commodities’ technology has been applied in various real-world scenarios, such as monitoring global coal trade flows, where the platform distinguishes between thermal and coking coal shipments and tracks their movements from origin mines to destination ports, helping traders anticipate demand changes and price fluctuations. In the iron ore sector, DBX’s analytics have been used to follow large-scale exports from regions like Australia’s Pilbara to China’s industrial hubs, estimating port inventories and enabling steel producers to adjust procurement strategies. 

DBX Commodities has built a strong network of strategic alliances that underpin its technological and market reach, starting with Signal Ventures and the Signal Group, which incubated the company and provided technical infrastructure, maritime data, and operational support from its launch. A key technological collaboration is with the European Space Agency (ESA), through which DBX developed the SPECTRUM platform to monitor industrial site activity via satellite and thermal imagery. The company has also drawn on domain synergies with OilX, a leader in oil market intelligence, to refine its analytics approach. While client names are largely undisclosed, DBX’s customer base reportedly includes commodity producers, global trading houses, banks, hedge funds, steel mills, power utilities, and shipping companies organizations that rely on precise and timely intelligence to optimize supply chain decisions in the competitive maritime commodities market.

References

DBX Commodities. (n.d.). About DBX. Retrieved August 14, 2025, from https://www.dbxcommodities.com/about-dbx 

DBX Commodities. (n.d.). Commodity intelligence with DBX insights. Retrieved August 14, 2025, from https://www.dbxcommodities.com

European Space Agency. (2025, June). DBX SPECTRUM. Retrieved August 14, 2025, from https://business.esa.int/projects/dbx-spectrum 

PitchBook. (2025). DBX Commodities company profile. Retrieved August 14, 2025, from https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/518194-45 

The Coal Hub. (n.d.). DBX Dry Bulk Analytics. Retrieved August 14, 2025, from https://thecoalhub.com/industry-link/dbx-dry-bulk-analytics 

The Signal Group. (2022, July 5). New dry bulk commodity analytics company takes off. Retrieved August 14, 2025, from https://www.thesignalgroup.com/newsroom/new-dry-bulk-commodity-analytics-company-takes-off 

WorldCargo News. (2022, July 13). New dry bulk commodity analytics company. Retrieved August 14, 2025, from https://www.worldcargonews.com/bulk/2022/07/new-dry-bulk-commodity-analytics-company

Contributor: Ariana Tri Asti
Reviewer : Imam Buchari, David Ratner