Freightos, the online service that automatically scans thousands of rate quotes to come up with the best rate for shippers, has two new investors – MSR Capital and Sadara Ventures – to the tune of US$14 million. They join existing investors Aleph, Annox Capital, ICB and OurCrowd, bringing the total of money raised by Freightos to $23.3 million, continuing a wave of recent interest from venture capital firms in the logistics sector.
Based in Israel, Freightos was one of the first startups to realize the opportunity in rate-quote automation, but now several more venture-backed companies have entered the forwarder price-quote market. Freightos said B2B e-commerce has grown 40 percent since 2014 and that it is anticipated to be worth $6.7 trillion annually by 2020. The lack of instant, transparent international freight pricing, the company said, can cause forwarders to overpay for shipping.
Forwarders CEVA Logistics, Nippon Express and Hellman Worldwide, among others, have utilized Freightos’ services. Before Freightos, forwarders would take an average of three days to provide an international freight quote, which is a time frame that is increasingly considered unacceptable among most shippers today.
For more on the topic of venture capitalists in logistics click here