Air freight booking platform cargo.one has snagged US$42 million in series B funding led by California-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, joined by existing investors Index Ventures, Creandum, Point Nine and Next47.
With the fresh funds cargo.one will focus on growth opportunities in North America and Asia trade lane, where airlines have been responding to surging demand for air cargo. Recently it signed three new airlines onto its platform to handle 180 tonnes of air cargo per day.
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Today, the company’s digital platform processes more than 110,000 shipments in Europe and 45,000 tonnes with 15 airline partners, including Lufthansa Cargo, Finnair Cargo, Etihad Cargo and All Nippon Airways Cargo. Cargo.one’s platform is the first to add options for shipping temperature-sensitive products to support global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines
“Between 2019 and 2020, we increased our user base by 300% with 2,000 freight-forwarding offices now using the platform in Europe to book real-time offers in the highly precarious market situation – in that time bookings have grown by more than 700%,” said cargo.one managing director Moritz Claussen.
“We will use the funds raised to build on our success in Europe, onboard more airline partners, grow our user base of freight forwarders globally, and deepen the expansion into North America and Asia,” added cargo.one managing director Oliver T. Neumann.
“As global distribution of the vitally important COVID-19 vaccine ramps up, we are expanding our product offerings to make all pharma shipments bookable across our partner airlines as the first multi-airline platform to ever do so,” he noted.
The IT company said it will continue to develop tools that use data to let airlines offer more dynamic pricing, engage in better route planning and predict demand in volatile markets, as well as adding more products for booking through 2021.
To date, cargo.one has distributed more than 18 million offers to freight forwarders, serving 347 destinations around the world, and has delivered shipments to 122 countries.
