Berlin-based cargo.one has raised US$ 18.6M in a Series A round of funding held in July 2020, led by Index Ventures, Next47 and existing investors Creandum, Lufthansa Cargo, Point Nine Capital along with a number of angel investors including Tom Stafford of DST Global and Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas (COO of GoCardless and former CPO of Skyscanner).
Capital raised will be used in expanding the business, with the target of increasing the number of airlines that sign up, including strengthening its coverage in Europe. cargo.one is also looking forward to expanding into North America and Asia and triple headcount to 70 members by the end of 2020 through an aggressive hiring drive.
The startup offers a digital platform for freight agents to search, compare and book air freight capacities across airlines. Their main aim is to digitize the air freight industry. cargo.one was founded in 2017 by Moritz Claussen, Oliver T. Neumann and Mike Rotgers.
Over the past 12 months, the startup claims it has increased its Gross merchandise value (GMV) by 10x and is expecting continued growth as COVID-19 encourages the adoption of digital distribution in air cargo.
The platform provides listings of available air freight across partner airlines and route, aiming to replace what can be a grueling process of phone calling and/or email back and forth for its target users (freight-forwarding offices). Airlines itself set prices for air freight products sold via cargo.one .
Neumann, who labels the product as “more than just a booking platform”, further says, “The air cargo market has been stuck in the ’90s when compared to the passenger business. The vast majority of air cargo to this day is booked by calling the airlines directly. Many processes are still manual and time-consuming. We design, build and maintain custom integrations to our airline partners, creating both the front end for freight forwarders and integrating into the systems of the airlines and helping them improve the back-end infrastructure. That’s why we refer to it as the operating system for air cargo.”
Presently, cargo.one’s platform has some 1.1 million+ air freight offers per month, covering 120+ countries and 300 airports world-wide. It has more than 1,500 freight-forwarding offices signed up at this point, which it claims to be among “21 of the top 25 companies globally.”
The airlines working with them also benefit from a fully digital and data-driven distribution channel, attracting new business at a lower cost and higher operational efficiency. cargo.one has a roster of clients including Lufthansa Cargo, Finnair Cargo, AirBridgeCargo, Etihad Cargo, ANA Cargo, Expeditors, DACHSER, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, Flexport, Agility Global Integrated Logistics and JAS Worldwide that buy and sell air cargo online.
Martin Mignot from Index Ventures said about the funding: “cargo.one has formed close partnerships with major global airlines, who have subsequently seen their cargo business expand significantly. Conversations with dozens of other airlines in the Americas and Asia show the clear need for a simple booking engine for air cargo, and early signs of the far-reaching impact it will have on the airline industry and businesses around the world who rely on it to serve their customers.”
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