The Singapore based digital forwarder Freightify, has announced it’s raised $12m debt and equity in Series A round of funding to help power the digital transformation of freight forwarders through its solutions. The round was led by Sequoia Capital India & Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia with participation from Trail Mix Ventures and Alteria Capital. The round also includes returning investors Nordic Eye Venture Capital and Motion Ventures. The company had previously raised $2.5m in funding, bringing the total to $14.5m raised so far.
Founded in 2016, Freightify, formerly known as FreightBro, empowers freight forwarders by providing rate automation, quotation management and e-booking solutions to setup a digital storefront. Initially, the company started as a marketplace for freight forwarders to conveniently search, book and track freight.
It has a freight rate management SaaS platform that allows freight forwarders to procure, manage and quote freight prices (including all possible ancillary charges) in very less time. It allows any forwarder to create a digital storefront to serve their customers better. In addition to this, it includes track and trace solutions that help freight forwarders in getting live location of vessels and automated milestones within seconds.
The company is navigating a unique approach in the industry, away from a marketplace model that offers a one-to-many solution, and more of an all-encompassing personalised platform that freight forwards can license as a white label solution for their websites.
Over 200 freight forwarding companies providing global logistics services (across 45 countries) use the platform to digitise their operations. These customers have reported reducing processing time by more than 70% and substantial cost savings in doing business. Some customers deploy a Freightify white-label platform and have reported an increase in win ratio by more than 20% and a very noticeable increase in retained business, claimed by the company in a statement.
The new funding round will help the company to launch new functionalities and deliver on a strong and expanded product roadmap, expand the sales team globally, especially in North America, build channel partnerships, and increase its brand awareness globally as they expand into new geographies and segments.
“We set up Freightify to remove the heavy lifting of manually providing quotations, accepting email/telephonic bookings, managing documentation, coordinating, and tracking shipments. We have been expanding rapidly across Europe, Australia, and key regions in Asia pacific, and are currently expanding in North America. We have a highly skilled product and engineering team that can deliver on a strong product roadmap,” says Raghavendran Viswanathan, CEO of Freightify.
The freight forwarding industry has recently seen a proliferation of start-ups offering white-label solutions for freight forwarders. The freight forwarding landscape is inundated with software vendors that empower forwarders by providing them with the tools to digitalise and automate manual operations. The spectrum of forwarding-enabling software vendors has therefore widened considerably in recent years, focusing on providing forwarders with a customized digital experience for their customers. There are many start-ups globally who compete with Freightify including Azyra, ItsMyCargo, Logixboard, Descartes Kontainers among others.
The global freight forwarding market facilitates movement of cargo from one place to another through a series of manual and legacy processes. According to Transport Intelligence, the global freight forwarding company was valued at €263.13bn market in 2022, and is forecasted to reach a market value of €296,81bn by 2026. This provides plenty of growth opportunities that Freightify can tap into moving forward.
Author: Meghna Mishra
Source: Ti Insights
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