The 10-year-old logistics technology platform provider Freightos Ltd. is going public, announcing Tuesday that it has raised $80 million in new backing and will list its shares on the NASDAQ stock market “in the coming months.”
As opposed to selling sharing in the company through an initial public offering (IPO), Hong Kong-based Freightos says it plans to accomplish the move by merging with Gesher I Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded “blank check company” or special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC).
The fresh capital comes from investors and corporations, including $60 million from M&G Investments in the form of Gesher shares and cash, $10 million from existing investor Qatar Airways, and $10 million from Composite Analysis Group Inc., an affiliate of Safer Logistics LLC. Previous investors that still own stakes in the firm include: FedEx Corp., SGX Group, Qatar Airways, IAG Cargo, LATAM Airlines Group, Bob Mylod (chairman of Booking Holdings), Aleph, and MoreVC. Existing Freightos shareholders are expected to own up to 78% of the combined company after the latest funding round.
Freightos says it will use the new funds will help advance its mission of digitalizing international freight and helping make global trade frictionless. The firm offers a global freight booking platform, connecting carriers—including airlines, ocean liners, and trucking companies—freight forwarders, and importers and exporters with services such as on-demand freight pricing, booking, and capacity.
The company has been growing fast, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 213% in gross booking value (GBV) between the first quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2022. Now employing some 330 employees worldwide, the company will have an “implied pro forma enterprise value” of $435 million after going public.
“Global freight moves the world,” Freightos CEO Zvi Schreiber said in a release. “Last year, $22 trillion worth of goods crossed borders, but we have all witnessed what happens when shipping doesn’t run smoothly, creating inventory shortages and increasing prices that challenge businesses and consumers globally. This presents a massive opportunity to digitalize one of the last large offline industries.”
In a blog post, Schreiber said he founded Freightos as a “booking.com” for the travel of goods. “World trade is built on a foundation of global shipping. And while outsiders might assume that it operates like a Swiss clock, the foundations are surprisingly rickety,” Schreiber said in the post. “In retrospect I’m pleased that I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that it would take so many years for even a single cargo airline, or container ocean liner, to provide an API (that is digital computer to computer connection) for instant rates, capacity, and electronic bookings.”
