Dive Brief:
- Online freight marketplace startup Freightos announced Wednesday it had acquired WebCargoNet, the world's largest air cargo rate management company, for an undisclosed amount.
- The companies' combined freight management systems will now include over 200 million air, ocean and land freight pricing data points, creating the largest such marketplace in the world.
- The freight management systems seeks to digitize freight booking on a neutral platform, facilitating the process for small and medium enterprises looking for forwarders.
Dive Insight:
The deal is one of a series of recent supply-chain startup acquisitions that have occurred as industry players seek to offer, or find, solutions to optimize operations.
Over $19 trillion worth of goods are shipped around the world annually, Freightos Spokesman Eytan Buchman said in an earlier interview. The company saw logistics as the source of large inefficiencies within the supply chain and sought to address it with a cloud-based, Expedia-like marketplace.
Freightos is not alone in the freight forwarding market, however. The Wall Street Journal reports similar startups have raised more than $1 billion in investments over the past two years. Freightos has raised $23.3 million in equity funding since its 2012 founding, including a $14 million Series B round last year.
As a result, the company is looking for a competitive advantage, and WebCargoNet's air freight expertise fit the bill. The combined data will make it simpler for "forwarders to sell their services and for importers and exporters to buy, resulting in smoother world trade," Freightos said.
