Freight start-up Flexport soars from ‘unsexy’ to $800m valuation

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.