Online Freight Network Freightos Raises $4.6M Series B

Freightos, the Israel-headquartered startup that operates an online freight network to bring efficiencies, such as realtime quotes, to the freight industry, has raised $4.6 million Series B funding. The round was led by Aleph and ICV, with follow on investment via OurCrowd, the equity-based crowdfunding platform. It brings the total raised by the company to $6.3 million.

Another classic example of the cloud replacing the Excel, PDF and fax machine (yes, fax!) way of doing business, Freightos provides a Software as a Service for freight forwarders to manage rates and automate routing and pricing, both internally and on their own customer-facing websites. The draw being that by using the platform, freight quotes can take place in real time, rather than the status quo of days, helping freight forwarders win more business and, frankly, dragging the freight industry as a whole into the 21st century.

It’s a massive industry to boot — a multi­-trillion dollar one, apparently – but also an industry crying out for greater efficiency and transparency, to say the least. Another startup working to help make that happen is Xeneta, which offers a crowdsourced price comparison service for sea freight, and recently secured €1.2 million (~$1.6m) in backing from Stockholm VC Creandum, with participation from Norwegian private investment firm Alden.

The Freightos Network is described as enabling freight vendors to collaborate automatically with other vendors and customers in order to provide “instant door-to-door quotes”. Freight vendors can use the platform to buy freight service routes from one vendor and automate resale to their own customers. It also lets freight vendors integrate a customer-facing eCommerce solution on their own websites so customers can generate quotes online.