Air cargo market enjoys some calm before an expected Q4 storm
It has been a quiet couple of weeks in airfreight, owing to China’s Golden Week. Overall ...
AAPL: SHIFTING PRODUCTIONUPS: GIVING UP KNIN: INDIA FOCUSXOM: ANOTHER WARNING VW: GROWING STRESSBA: OVERSUBSCRIBED AND UPSIZEDF: PRESSED ON INVENTORY TRENDSF: INVENTORY ON THE RADARF: CEO ON RECORD BA: CAPITAL RAISING EXERCISEXPO: SAIA BOOSTDSV: UPGRADEBA: ANOTHER JUMBO FUNDRAISINGXPO: SAIA READ-ACROSSHLAG: BOUYANT BUSINESS
AAPL: SHIFTING PRODUCTIONUPS: GIVING UP KNIN: INDIA FOCUSXOM: ANOTHER WARNING VW: GROWING STRESSBA: OVERSUBSCRIBED AND UPSIZEDF: PRESSED ON INVENTORY TRENDSF: INVENTORY ON THE RADARF: CEO ON RECORD BA: CAPITAL RAISING EXERCISEXPO: SAIA BOOSTDSV: UPGRADEBA: ANOTHER JUMBO FUNDRAISINGXPO: SAIA READ-ACROSSHLAG: BOUYANT BUSINESS
Flexport’s charismatic Ryan Petersen has wooed investors again – and raised another $110m – giving the start-up a valuation of $800m. According to TechCrunch (Flexport wouldn’t comment), Flexport had received offers valuing it at more than $1bn, but decided that was a bit too much, in case the market sank. Flexport has 400 staff now, and expects revenues this year of $500m with a business model – according to TechCrunch – that has seen it shave five days off travel time for moving LCL shipments. The capital will be spent on turning Flexport into “an actual freight company”. The article also says that there is “plenty of revenue to be stolen from sluggish competitors”. But TechCrunch’s validity is slightly compromised by the fact that it claims Flexport appears to be scaling up “fast enough to compete with entrenched giants like FedEx and DHL”. If that’s the case, it’s going to need a lot more than $110m…
If you want to understand more about Flexport and its aims, check out The Loadstar’s podcast with Mr Petersen. It’s worth a listen.
Comment on this article
Nick Coverdale
October 06, 2017 at 2:06 pm” Flexport co-founder Ryan Petersen is a favorite amongst investors. “He’s a machine,” said one of TechCrunch’s sources ”
When I worked in the city of London every office had a machine for shilling you got tea or coffee , these investors for each million will be lucky if they get that .