Online booking and rate firm Freightos has acquired multimodal tender procurement platform Shipsta to expand its spot pricing, quoting, and booking capabilities.
Headquartered in Luxembourg, Shipsta supports companies’ freight procurement by streamlining tender management and procurement processes across air, ocean, road, and rail, enabling companies to solicit tenders from freight forwarders and carriers, said Freightos.
Shipsta’s technology serves multinational organisations across industries such as retail, industrial, pharma and automotive.
“The combined Freightos-Shipsta offering will provide the most comprehensive modern platform for selling and procuring freight services, connecting carriers, freight forwarders, and importers/exporters on one unified digital booking platform,” said Freightos.
“The acquisition of Shipsta is a strategic milestone for Freightos, enabling us to advance our vision of digitizing the freight industry end-to-end,” added Zvi Schreiber, chief executive of Freightos.
“Shipsta’s platform, outstanding customer roster, and experienced team will add significant value to our offering by introducing tender management and contract procurement – a segment representing an estimated 50-70% of the total air and ocean freight market.
“The acquisition addresses the needs of our importers, exporters, forwarders and carriers that seek comprehensive solutions beyond spot freight bookings and sales and we think customers will love the joint offering. We’re also excited to welcome Shipsta’s outstanding talent into the Freightos team.”
As part of the acquisition, Shipsta’s current team will join Freightos. Shipsta managing director and founder Christian Wilhelm and Stefan Maratzki, co-founder and chief innovation officer, will continue to lead Shipsta’s product development, innovation, customer success, and market strategy.
“Joining forces with Freightos marks a thrilling new chapter for Shipsta,” said Wilhelm. “Shipsta and Freightos share a mission to bring global freight online. Now, our customers will continue to benefit from the outstanding Shipsta product and team, with service and efficiency further enhanced, while driving new efficiencies to the thousands of forwarders that leverage Freightos and WebCargo by Freightos. Together, we expect to accelerate market penetration, drive innovation, and set new industry standards in freight.”
The acquisition will be financed through a combination of cash and equity. The consideration includes a cash payment of approximately €4.5m from existing reserves and the issuance of approximately 640,000 Freightos shares to a key Shipsta shareholder, subject to adjustment for working capital, and customary holdbacks.
Shipsta is expected to contribute approximately $800,000 to Freightos’ revenue during the last four months of 2024, with a moderate negative impact on Adjusted EBITDA. Revenue contribution in 2025 is expected to be between $4-5m.
“We are pleased to meaningfully enhance our offering on favorable deal terms”, said Ran Shalev, Freightos chief finance officer. “This acquisition provides us with immediate cross-selling opportunities for incremental growth while further aiding our path to positive Adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2026 without requiring additional capital. This acquisition strengthens our market position and positions us well for future growth and success.”
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