Capital Structured
for Performance
Maritime investment
company
Structure. Execute. Repeat.
We originate shipping investment projects, structure the capital behind them, and remain responsible through delivery and operation. We apply the same discipline across traditional shipping and next-generation maritime infrastructure: clear risk allocation, aligned capital, and accountable project delivery.
We work with investors, shipowners and project partners from origination through operation.
Project Origination
We originate and develop investment opportunities across shipping and maritime infrastructure.
Capital Formation
We structure the equity and debt required to finance each project.
Delivery & operation
We remain involved after financial close, with accountability through delivery and operation.
Flagship Partnership
Commenda Capital is the exclusive capital and project partner to DRIFT Energy, a next-generation maritime energy platform.
Who We Are
Shipping is no longer priced by freight cycles alone. Regulation, energy security and geopolitical risk are changing how maritime assets are financed and valued. Capital has to understand that before it commits.
Most ideas never leave the drawing board. Not because they lack vision, but because they cannot be financed, built, or operated in the real world.
Commenda Capital is built on a simple principle: if capital cannot earn a return, change does not scale.
We connect ambitious maritime projects with disciplined capital, and take responsibility for turning ideas into investable projects. Without credible returns for investors, nothing moves. With the right structure, a great deal can.
Commenda Meaning
The Meaning of Commenda
Commenda Capital takes its name from the commenda, the earliest maritime investment structure, formalised in medieval Venice to finance long and uncertain sea voyages. The word derives from the Latin commendare, meaning to entrust.
The commenda was the world’s first maritime special-purpose vehicle. One party provided capital. Another took responsibility for the voyage. Profits shared, liability defined, risk structured. Uncertainty became investable.
The structure financed Marco Polo. It financed the Age of Exploration.
Capital is not committed because intentions are good. It is committed when risk is defined, and reward is proportionate.
Eight centuries later, our name is more than a historical reference. It is our operating philosophy.
INVESTMENT
PHILOSOPHY
Returns are the test, not the intention.
Sometimes the opportunity is a first-of-a-kind maritime project that changes the economics of an established trade. Sometimes it is a conventional asset, where timing and structure determine the outcome.
We don’t pick sides between old and new.
We back projects where the economics can carry the risk and the structure can survive the real world. The source of return may differ. The discipline does not.
Flagship Partnership
Commenda Capital is the exclusive capital and project partner to DRIFT Energy.
DRIFT Energy is developing a first-of-a-kind maritime energy system: AI-guided vessels that harvest wind at sea and convert it into green hydrogen. The system is designed as mobile offshore energy infrastructure, independent of fixed installations and onshore grids.
DRIFT leads the technology and the commercial proposition: vessel design, hydrogen production systems, routing software and offtake development. Commenda leads the capital: structuring, investor engagement, debt and equity, and project execution through SPV-based vessel projects.
DRIFT is the kind of capital-intensive maritime project Commenda was created for. It is technically ambitious but asset-backed, and only investable if the risk can be structured.
MODEL
IN
ACTION
As DRIFT Energy progresses from prototype toward commercial deployment, Commenda Capital’s role is to structure the transition from development to scale.
The partnership is designed to evolve as technical performance is demonstrated and execution risk is reduced. Structures adapt as projects mature and capital broadens. Execution determines the pace.
2022
Demonstrator proven at sea (TRL-6)
2027
First commercial vessel under construction
2029
First flotillas in operation
2030+
Scaling across multiple markets and regions
Management Team
Commenda Capital is led by two maritime operators with experience spanning listed-company leadership, deal origination, capital formation and project delivery.
Ulrik Uhrenfeldt Andersen
CEO / MANAGING PARTNER
Former CEO of Golden Ocean Group and Avance Gas, with more than 20 years in shipping across dry bulk and gas. Previously Head of Shipping at Petredec in London, Managing Director of Neu Gas Shipping in Germany and Head of Maersk VLGC Pool.
Ulrik brings listed-company leadership and capital markets experience, having led shipping businesses through full market cycles as a public-company CEO.
Michael Ebbe Hansen
CIO / MANAGING PARTNER
Founder of Copenhagen Marine Capacity, a shipbroking and maritime advisory house with offices in Copenhagen and Dubai. Maersk-trained, with more than 20 years across chartering, tanker operations, LNG, S&P, financing structures and capital raising.
Michael brings transaction origination and commercial shipping execution, with an active network across Northern European, the Gulf and Asian shipping and capital markets.
