//

Freightos is like Expedia or Kayak for the shipping industry

Freightos, a Hong Kong-based logistics company that brings shipping quotes to an online one-stop-shop, announced yesterday it has raised a US$25 million Series B extension round led by GE Ventures.

The money will be used to scale the marketplace and develop Freightos’ software— which prices global freighting options, routing choices and automated sales.

Started in 2011, Freightos’ global headquarters is in Hong Kong and acts as the key launching point for its Asia business. However, Freightos was started in Jerusalem, Israel before moving its HQ to Hong Kong.

Freightos Marketplace was launched in July 2016 and, according to the company, already has 10,000 registered users and dozens of sellers.

The company often gets compared to travel booking companies like Expedia or Kayak.

Also Read: 123RF VP to speak in Echelon Malaysia 2017, discuss insights about the Malaysian startup ecosystem

The company says it has 1,000 logistics providers using the system, including major brands like Nippon Express, CEVA Logistics and Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

“The age of digital logistics has arrived, and with it easier importing and exporting for businesses worldwide. This once-neglected sector is ripe for digitization,” said Zvi Shreiber, Freightos CEO in an official statement.

Freightos marketplace screenshot

Freightos products and recent history

One interesting decision made by Freightos was to offer a free service called ‘Freightos International Freight Index‘. The product provides pricing insights for the industry and usually costs thousands of dollars. Offering the product for free is a unique value-add.

Jonathan Pulitzer, the Managing Director at GE Ventures, said part of the motivation for the investment was to compliment General Electric’s mandate to be a leading “global industrial company”.

“In just five years, Freightos technology has helped a thousand logistics providers operate more efficiently, while the Freightos Marketplace has shown fantastic growth and retention indicators,” he said.

Also Read: Singapore startup Weeloy raises US$3.6M to make restaurant management more efficient

One of the biggest deals in Freightos recent history was the acquisition WebCargoNet, a Barcelona company that specialises in air cargo rate management.

Overall, Freightos has raised a total of US$50 million from Aleph VC, Annox Capital, Gold Lion Holdings Limited, ICV, Master (HK) Toys, MSR Capital, OurCrowd, Sadara Ventures amongst others.

—

The post Hong Kong’s Freightos raises US$25 million, plans to scale marketplace appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2niqGvu