Boston, March 26, 2025 – Burmester & Vogel (“B&V”) is pleased to announce the acquisition of Laysoft, a Windows-based laytime calculation software for an undisclosed amount. Laysoft, also known as Laytime2000, has an established reputation for reliability with more than 200 active users in the dry bulk market over the past two decades, notably in the grain and mining segments. This acquisition provides Laysoft users a natural migration path to B&V’s Demurrage AI Copilot platform.  

B&V’s Demurrage AI Copilot automatically converts laytime calculations done in Laysoft into the B&V laytime format, preserving historical demurrage data while making the port intelligence available to them in the B&V platform. Customers can derive further insights from B&V’s business intelligence and analytics tools available in the online portal.    

Kingston Duffie, founder of Laysoft, remarked "I am happy that Laysoft had such a long and productive life. I built it more than 20 years ago as a favor for friends at FedNav and always felt that it should evolve into a web application." Mr. Duffie is a technology entrepreneur based in Palo Alto who has founded and sold three companies and is currently the founder and CEO of Navu, an AI-powered B2B CRM software provider helping companies with a smarter way to drive website conversions. 

Evangelos Efstathiou, CEO of Burmester & Vogel: “Over the past several years, we have observed a steady migration of Laysoft customers to B&V's cloud-based platform, which combines B&V’s proprietary Demurrage AI with our robust laytime calculator. The acquisition of a successful, niche application such as Laysoft further consolidates B&V’s position serving several hundred companies in the maritime industry. Our Laysoft customers now have a frictionless path to a powerful and intuitive laytime platform. We are excited to welcome Laysoft users to B&V and help them spend less time on demurrage.”

Boston-based B&V is a maritime technology company pioneering the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to automate laytime and reduce cost, risk and delay in dry and liquid bulk cargo operations. Based in Kendall Square – “the most innovative square mile on the planet” – B&V is one of the most widely-used systems for calculating demurrage in the world.   

B&V was advised by Charles Hughes of Barton LLP on the transaction, which closed in Q4 of 2024. 

About Burmester & Vogel 

Burmester & Vogel maritime shipping software is used by industrial producers, commodity traders, bulk terminals and shipowners to calculate delay time and demurrage when a ship is loading / discharging cargo in port. B&V’s proprietary Demurrage AI and machine learning driven analytics help vessels reduce their in-port emissions by providing actionable insights into the drivers of delays and excess port time. 

For more information, reach out to info@burmester-vogel.com.