Freight Industry Innovation Gets Boost with Venture Capital Investment in Freightos
HONG KONG (PRWEB) March 25, 2014 -- Freightos, the global online freight network, today announced the completion of a $4.6 million Series B funding. The series was led by Aleph and ICV, with follow on investment from OurCrowd.
Global trade has expanded by 400 percent in the past two decades, supported by a trillion dollar cargo industry. However, the technologies used to price and sell freight services have barely changed. The average international shipment price quote takes three days and about half of all companies are dissatisfied with their freight vendor’s IT capabilities.
“We saw an opportunity to dramatically change an industry - and for us, nothing is more exciting,” said Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos. “Freightos empowers supply chain companies to demand instant, all-inclusive price quotes for moving cargo from points A to B to C. We are bringing freight vendors into the 21st century with web technologies and big data algorithms to automate and expand their business.”
Since 2013, Freightos has been adopted by dozens of multi-national and independent freight forwarders. Using the Freightos Network and cutting-edge technology, freight forwarders are experiencing dramatic increases in sales and shippers are given faster service and more choices to optimize their supply chain. By providing transparency into routes and modes and avoiding the current system of underutilized vessels and inefficient lanes, freight vendors and shippers may utilize Freightos to increase their efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint.
Freightos offers:
- The Freightos Network for synchronous, global rate sharing across freighting vendors
- Automated door-to-door online multimodal and multi-leg routing and quoting
- A repository for freight tariffs of all modes and tools for reading carrier contracts
- Business intelligence for analyzing sales and price trends
- Multilingual and multiple currency support, across road, rail, ocean or air transport
"Freight is the backbone of the global economy but its technology has not scaled with the industry," said Glen Schwaber of ICV. "The Freightos B2B networking and automation vision is one of connectivity and transparency that promises to make the freight world faster, more efficient and more eco-friendly than ever before."
“Networked software and big data are going to transform many industries in need of radical evolutions to service 21st century customers,” said Michael Eisenberg, founding partner at Aleph. “We invested in Freightos because we believe the freighting industry deserves this transformation. The synchronous network and automated services Freightos offers will bring internet speed and enable ‘economies of networks’ which we can’t even fully imagine today.”
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About Freightos
Freightos, the global freight network provider, provides the world’s first sales network and automation platform for freight carriers, vendors and forwarders. The Freightos Network enables synchronous communication across the industry with the instant upload and computation of complex contracts and freight quotes. Freightos fully supports multiple languages and currencies. For additional materials, visit Freightos Press Kit or http://freightos.com. Freightos is the trading name of Tradeos Limited, a Hong Kong Company..
About ICV
Established in 2006, ICV (Israel Cleantech Ventures), provides early stage capital to exceptional entrepreneurs creating companies that improve the environmental footprint of existing industries. ICV taps into Israel’s core strengths in software, electronics, materials, and sciences, to help build companies that bring increased sustainability and resource efficiency to global markets. http://www.israelcleantech.com
About Aleph
Aleph was formed to support Israeli technology startups scale more effectively in the global market. The venture capital firm was founded by Michael Eisenberg and Eden Shochat, previously of Benchmark Capital and Face.com respectively, in July 2013. As Israeli companies are known for their different approach, so is Aleph. Gain insight at http://www.aleph.vc/.
About OurCrowd
OurCrowd is a hybrid VC-crowdfunding platform for accredited investors only who wish to invest in Israeli and global early stage companies. Managed by a team of well-known investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd selects opportunities, invests its own capital and brings these startups to its accredited membership. Members choose those deals they invest in via OurCrowd-managed partnerships. OurCrowd investors must meet stringent accreditation criteria and invest a minimum of $10,000 per deal. OurCrowd provides post investment support to its portfolio companies, assigning industry experts as mentors and taking board seats. Learn more at http://www.ourcrowd.com.
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Eytan Buchman, Freightos, http://www.freightos.com, +972 54 206 9227, [email protected]
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