Launched in early 2025, 129Knots has rapidly established a platform with over 100 industry stakeholders to date, with the ecosystem continuing to grow and is now shifting focus from early-stage growth to a scale-up phase, learns Manifold Times.

The Singapore-based brand positions itself as a unique fintech platform, specialised for the maritime and marine fuel sectors.

Mahesh Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, 129Knots, shares it aims to deploy $200 million in trade capital over the next 18 months in the marine fuel industry.

MT: Can you tell us about the progress of 129Knots since its inception, particularly over the last year?

We were incubated and launched under the Singapore Economic Development Board’s (EDB) Corporate Venture Launchpad programme, which supports venture creation and startup partnerships from Singapore. In collaboration with McKinsey & Company, we validated the market opportunity and shaped the foundation for 129Knots to address structural gaps in the real-world asset economy. With additional support from Enterprise Singapore and IBM Consulting, we officially launched in early 2025 and have since scaled steadily with live transactions. To date, we have facilitated approximately USD 50 million in live transactions, addressing a critical liquidity gap in the marine fuel supply chain.

Looking ahead, we are prioritising trade capital deployment as our core growth metric, with plans to deploy up to USD 200 million through our banking and financial partners over the next 18 months, further strengthening liquidity access across the marine fuel ecosystem.

Today, we support a growing ecosystem of over 100 stakeholders, including more than 60 marine fuel suppliers and over 40 buyers, alongside banking and financial institutions, fund syndicate partners, and credit insurers, with month-on-month transaction volumes continuing to scale.

While we are primarily active in Singapore and the UAE, we are also in discussions to expand into China and the ARA region, while evaluating the US as a potential future market.

MT: How would you describe the user experience for buyers and suppliers onboarding to 129Knots, for example, when engaging in bunker fuel transactions?

Onboarding and deal structuring on 129Knots is designed to be institutional-grade, with governance, compliance, and onboarding processes aligned with the standards expected of a financial institution. We conduct thorough due diligence that evaluates our counterparties across one, three and five year growth horizons, as our objective is to solve financial challenges.

Our platform’s offerings include over 20 distinct products and services, developed based on direct stakeholder requirements. It’s a curated, ring-fenced platform where anchor marine fuel buyers can bring their trusted suppliers, ensuring secure and private interactions.

We engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including ship owners, charters, and operators on the buying side. We also work with many marine fuel suppliers who need immediate cash or liquidity solutions for new growth opportunities, offering flexible arrangements to support them.

MT: Why should industry stakeholders choose to deal with 129Knots over other options?

We offer structural solutions at scale, with a consistent and disciplined approach to credit deployment. Our ability to understand the risk of all counterparties is built on robust frameworks, supported by scalable credit capacity through our financial partners. We also provide derivatives of financial products and solutions beyond just marine fuel services, such as barge financing and working capital loans, delivered in collaboration with embedded financing partners such as GLDB, making us a comprehensive trade enabler.

Many players have tried to solve the credit problem in maritime. Those with tech often lack business expertise, those with only money lack industry expertise, and business-focused entities struggle to gain bankers’ trust. We uniquely combine industry risk, tech, and finance problems on a single common platform. While there are many alternative financials or tech companies solving individual problems, marrying all three at a structural scale makes us unique.

By integrating deep industry knowledge, financial structuring, and a sophisticated technology stack (including AI and blockchain), we aim to solve the core credit and liquidity challenges across maritime trade, including those emerging from the industry’s transition toward new and alternative marine fuels.

MT: How are dispute resolution and security handled on your platform?

129Knots focuses on the credit, liquidity, and financial structuring layer of trade, while commercial terms and operational execution remain between buyers and suppliers. Terms and conditions are fully codified and transparent on the platform. While we have sophisticated claims and dispute management modules, we do not intermediate claims; resolution is expected to be settled between the marine fuel supplier and buyer.

Our platform is powered by several key technologies, including blockchain for governance and audit trails, and data-driven partnerships for compliance and price discovery. We have built-in fraud and compliance algorithms, along with our proprietary AI-driven credit engine, Tribalknots, that scans the entire maritime industry to assess creditworthiness, and automatic sanction checks and screening. It’s a modular platform, allowing for seamless integration and configuration of rule-based term sheets to meet specific needs.

MT: Lastly, why the company name “129knots”?

The brand name “129Knots” reflects both our origin and our full-stack ambition. “1.29” represents Singapore latitude, where we were founded and “1 to 9” symbolises end-to-end suite of solutions we provide to the maritime industry. “Knots,” a maritime measure of speed and connection, captures how we bring structure, velocity and digital innovation to real-world digital assets.

Related: Sing Fuels-backed 129Knots and GLDB to address multi-billion dollar marine fuel liquidity gap
Related: Singapore bunker trader Sing Fuels backs fintech venture with USD 10 mil investment

Photo credit: 129Knots
Published: 11 February 2026