AI for logistics. By builders.
Moonlabs is the operator-led AI Academy in Derby. We run three live companies — Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk — and we teach twelve students per cohort to ship a real AI product, sell it to a real customer, and raise on it. Three pillars: Coding, Commercials, Investment. Twelve weeks. £6,000.
Moonlabs is what we are. Two operators — James Freestone and Louis O’Connell-Bristow — who run Homemove, home.co.uk and homedata.co.uk. Homemove is in the business of physically moving people — an operational, exception-heavy, document-heavy, SLA-bound logistics problem. The patterns on this page are the same ones we use ourselves.
The Academy is what we do. A twelve-week, in-person, twelve-student cohort in Derby. You build a real AI product. You sign a paid pilot on it. You write a deck and a financial model. You leave with a deployed system, a paying customer reference and a live investor pipeline. Coding, Commercials, Investment — the three pillars taught in equal weight every week.
Why this page exists. Logistics and supply chain are quietly being rebuilt around AI faster than almost any other operational function — demand forecasting, dynamic routing, document automation (BOLs, customs, AWBs), exception triage, supplier monitoring, freight invoice auditing. Every one has a vendor pitch landing in the inbox this quarter, and operators who can ship the tooling themselves are rare. You leave the Academy as the operator who ships the AI — or as the founder of a logistics-AI product backed by Tier-1 venture money.
Coding · the logistics-AI stack, built
Routing agents wired into your TMS, demand forecasting on real data, customs / BOL / AWB document understanding, freight-invoice audit, supplier monitoring. Evals tied to on-time-in-full, freight margin and exception-resolution time — not just model accuracy — from week one. A deployed logistics-AI tool by week twelve.
Commercials · selling AI into a 3PL, retailer or carrier
Pricing tied to OTIF improvement, exception-cost reduction or per-shipment savings. Procurement, CFO sign-off, the operations sponsor. A one-page pilot agreement with one lane or one warehouse. A paid pilot by week six — for many graduates, sold back into the operation they arrived from and then out across the local 3PL network.
Investment · raising on logistics-AI
Flexport ($8bn), Project44 ($2.7bn), FourKites $200m+, Stord, Zencargo, Beacon (UK) raised on Jeff Bezos’s personal cheque, transmission.ai funded by Sequoia — logistics-AI is one of the densest funded vertical-AI categories in venture. Cap table, ten-slide deck, financial model. A live investor pipeline by demo day.
Common questions.
I have never coded. Is this realistic for a logistics professional?
Yes. AI tooling has collapsed the on-ramp; we have taken senior non-coding professionals through to a deployed product in twelve weeks. More on that here.
Will I learn how to evaluate logistics-AI vendor products too?
Yes. After twelve weeks of building you can read a Project44, FourKites, Flexport AI or transmission demo with operator-grade scepticism. The procurement conversations afterwards are fundamentally different.
Can my employer fund this?
Often yes — logistics L&D budgets and the Apprenticeship Levy can apply. Larger 3PLs, freight forwarders and retailers almost all pay the Levy. Full funding routes here.
I run a small freight forwarder / 3PL. Is this for me as a founder?
Yes — arguably one of our strongest fits. A working AI stack pays back its tuition cost inside a year for a small operator who can build their own tooling rather than rent six SaaS subscriptions.
How does this compare to the AI course for retail and e-com?
Adjacent but distinct. Retail / e-com tends to lean into merchandising, personalisation and customer service; logistics leans into operations, routing, document automation. Many supply-chain leaders sit between the two.
More Academy entry points.
The Academy is one course with many doors. Each of these pages is a different entry point into the same twelve weeks.
Build it. Sell it. Raise on it. In twelve weeks.
Tell us what your logistics or supply-chain function looks like and what AI tool you would build for it. James and Louis read every application personally and reply inside the week.
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