GE Ventures backs Hong Kong digital logistics business
GE Ventures, the VC arm of General Electric, has led a $25 million extended Series B round of funding for Freightos, a Hong Kong-based logistics technology company. It brings total funding for the business to $50 million.
Founded in 2012 by Israeli serial entrepreneur Zvi Schreiber, Freightos’ flagship product is software-as-a-service AcceleRate, which enables carriers, freight forwarders and shippers to automate pricing and routing. Last year, the company introduced a marketplace that provides instant price quotes for freight forwarders. It works with more than 1,000 logistics providers globally, including Nippon Express, CEVA Logistics, and Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.
Freightos’ services are underpinned by a freight pricing and routing engine as well as a database of more than 300 million ocean, air and land freight price rates. The database, which is updated daily, is growing by over 10 million price points every week.
Last year, the company bought WebCargoNet, a Barcelona-based technology provider of air cargo rate management and electronic bookings. The new capital will be used to scale the marketplace globally – it has already accumulated 10,000 registered users, including the top 20 global freight forwarders – while continuing to develop the software-as-a-service product.
“Logistics digitization is a strong strategic complement for General Electric’s role as the world’s leading digital industrial company,” said Jonathan Pulitzer, managing director for Israel at GE Ventures. “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.”
The company’s first outside investment was an equity crowdfunding round raised in 2012. This was followed by approximately $15 million in Series A and venture funding in 2014, before a $14 million Series B in 2015. That round featured existing investors Aleph, Annox Capital, ICV and OurCrowd, as well as MSR Capital and Sadara Ventures.
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