GoFreight raises $28M to become the “Shopify of freight forwarding”

Unicorn Flexport is a freight forwarder that allows customers to manage their shipments. Many of the smaller freight forwarders are using outdated software. GoFreight wants to help them compete by providing the "Shopify of freight forwarding," with software that makes their operations run more smoothly, and a frontend that lets them set up a storefront and give quotes in a few minutes.

The Los Angeles and Taipei based startup has raised $23 million in Series A funding. LFX Venture Partners and Palm Drive Capital were involved in the round.

GoFreight helps manage the transportation of goods through various routes. They can set up online stores with a few clicks. Potential customers can connect to freight forwarders by sending an inquiry through a storefront and getting a quotation within a few minutes.

When a freight forwarding job is underway, shipments can be tracked with a real-time tool, so freight forwarders and customers know exactly where their shipment containers are. Users of GoFreight's platform know how the performance of shipments is impacting their earnings with the integration of tracking software.

After earning his masters and PhD in the U.S., Chen returned to Taiwan to work for TSMC. At that time, AppWorks and other startup programs were getting a lot of attention, and Chen decided he wanted to be anentrepreneur. He gave himself six months to come up with a new idea after leaving TSMC. One of his co- founders was living in Los Angeles and working as an importer.

I knew many people in this industry when I was in the US. Many of our friends asked us to go there and look at the software. In the last month of my six month period, I bought a ticket to LA and spent time with the first 10 freight forwarders to learn how they do business with software. GoFreight was founded after the first week.

The global freight forwarding market is worth about $280 billion dollars, but most of the software it uses is outdated. GoFreight wants traditional freight forwarders to be able to compete with the same technology that Flexport has.

The main business of a freight forwarding business is how to ship cargo from one point to another. Software can't help reduce shipping costs or get it there quicker because the service is the main business. Chen said that it can help provide additional valuable information to customers. It is an approach to make this industry better.

According to Chen, GoFreight is different from other freight forwarding software startup because most of them are trying to create new systems. It is difficult to do because many freight forwarders use outdated systems. They work off of spreadsheets or pen-and-paper systems instead of using an enterprise resource planning system.

When a customer inquires, freight forwarders can enter it into their system and then return with a quotation. GoFreight has the ability to manage bookings, real-time shipments and electronic filing. Invoices can be generated and sent through GoFreight.

We want to become theshopify of the space, so in one-click they can open an online store, and their importers can use the online web portal to send an inquiry and it just pops up in the system, automatically with pricing and they can book their tickets We provide visibility solutions for the front end application.

The process of generating quotes can take a couple days since freight forwarding orders are complicated. If a customer wants to send three containers from Shanghai to Los Angeles, they need to check with overseas agents who are also freight forwarders. They need to arrange the transportation of things. Spot rates can be cheaper than contract rates.

Most of this work is done through email, phone calls and text messages, but a centralized customer-facing app means freight forwarders can complete the entire process, including checking with overseas agents, through GoFreight. A network that connects customers with freight forwarders and carriers is being built by GoFreight.

Most payments used to be done by paper checks. When a freight forwarder issues a link to their customers, they can decide what invoices to pay with credit cards or bank accounts. The information goes back to GoFreight.

The data provided by GoFreight can help the freight forwarders. GoFreight will record how much they paid for a 40-foot container and how much customers were charged. The system finds hidden fees when analyzing performance for top customers and overseas agents, so freight forwarders have a better idea of the real cost of a shipment. It also shows how much it costs to ship an item.

The new funding will be used to develop more features.

GoFreight's all-in-one software provides greater transparency to freight movement, allowing freight forwarders to better manage their business, which can range from 0-1500 users, end-to-end. The product is incredibly impactful, and a big reason why we think they are one of the most promising logistics tech companies on the market.

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