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GoFreight Raises $28M to Become the “Shopify of Freight Forwarding”
Unicorn Flexport is revolutionizing the world of logistics, serving as a freight forwarder with software that enables customers to manage their shipments. But there are still thousands of smaller freight forwarders, many running on outdated ERP software or spreadsheets. A startup called GoFreight wants to help them compete by providing the "Shopify of freight forwarding," with backend software that makes their operations run more smoothly, and a frontend that lets them set up a storefront and provide quotes in a few minutes.
The Los Angeles and Taipei-based startup has raised $23 million in Series A funding, co-led by Flex Capital and Headline. The round included participation from LFX Venture Partners, Palm Drive Capital and returning investors Mucker Capital, Cornerstone Ventures and Red Building Capital.
GoFreight, which currently has about 1,000 customers, helps manage transportation of goods through ocean, air and land routes. It also lets them set up online storefronts with a few clicks. Potential customers can connect to freight forwarders by sending them an inquiry through storefront and getting a quotation within a few minutes, instead of the 24 to 48 hours usually necessary.
Once a freight forwarding job is underway, shipments can be tracked with an EDI-integrated, real-time tool, so freight forwarders and customers know exactly where their shipment containers are. Tracking software also integrates with accounting tools on GoFreight's platform, so users know how the performance of shipments is impacting their earnings.
Co-founder and CEO Trenton Chen earned his Masters and PhD in the United States before returning to Taiwan to join TSMC. At that time, AppWorks and other startup programs were getting a lot of attention, and Chen decided he wanted to become an entrepreneur. He left TSMC ("it was a tough decision, because no one agreed with that," he told TechCrunch), and gave himself six months to find a viable idea. During that time, one of his co-founders was living in Los Angeles, working as an importer for a family business.
"When I was in the States, I knew a lot of people in this industry as well. So many of our good friends asked us to go there and see how bad the software is. So in the last month of my six month period, I decided to give it an opportunity, bought a ticket for three months to go to LA and spend time with the first 10 freight forwarders, learning how they do business with software. We founded GoFreight after the first week we were there," Chen said.
Even though Chen says the global freight forwarding market is worth about $280 billion dollars, almost all the software it runs on is outdated. GoFreight's goal is to empower traditional freight forwarders to stay competitive with the same quality of technology that Flexport has.
