ZS: 'Freightos is going public…and how we got here'

Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos, wrote on 31 May:

Today we’re excited to announce that (drumroll…) Freightos is going public! The official announcement is here. This is an exciting milestone that accelerates our vision of a digital platform that modernizes international freight and improves global trade.

First, some background.

I started Freightos a decade ago, in 2012. Why? Because I believe that world trade is important. Really important. I can walk into a local shop and purchase products from all around the globe.

This isn’t just about consumerism; it’s inspiring to think that in purchasing an imported product, we are, in a tiny way, helping provide employment for people across our planet, often in developing countries. World trade is an important part of how the modern world functions, both in terms of consumer choice, and job creation.

I also believe that trade supports peace. The evidence shows that when countries trade with each other, they are less likely to war with each other. Trade cannot guarantee peace, but it certainly contributes. It increases interaction and understanding between different nations, and creates an economic incentive for maintaining peaceful relations. It is no coincidence that world trade has ballooned in the 75+ years since WWII. It’s worth remembering that despite tragic events we’re seeing in the headlines, overall these were the most peaceful 75 years in history.

But it doesn’t always work

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.

In the two years prior to starting Freightos, I witnessed, as CEO of a company called Lightech, how international shipping is offline, opaque and inefficient, adding cost and uncertainty to cross-border trade. We paid the price for inefficient shipping, both in direct costs, and the cost of maintaining buffer inventory to cover for all the unpredictability. We passed this cost on to the lighting fixture manufacturers, who no doubt passed on these costs to the consumers.

While passenger travel was going digital, the more complex “travel” of goods remained offline with multiple layers of intermediaries communicating manually. 90% of goods are imported and each imported product bears what you could call an offline shipping tax. If ever there was an industry in need of a digital revolution, it is international shipping, whether by ocean, air or land.

Enter Freightos

This inspired me to found Freightos, as a “booking.com” for the travel of goods.

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.

I assumed, after all, that freight carriers would publish APIs simply because they wanted to fill their vessels efficiently. If you have a service to sell, you want to make it as easy as you can for customers to get a quote and place a booking…

The full post can be read here.