Strategic acquisition broadens Freightos' digital
freight-booking vision by pairing Freightos' spot offering with
Shipsta's best-of-breed tender management platform. Deal
accelerates revenue growth and reaching breakeven with cash on
hand.
BARCELONA, Spain, Aug. 19,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Freightos (NASDAQ: CRGO) today
announced the acquisition of Shipsta, a leading freight-tender
procurement platform used by dozens of Global 1000 enterprises to
procure freight at scale from leading freight forwarders and
carriers. This transaction expands Freightos' existing
industry-leading spot pricing, quoting, and booking capabilities by
adding tender procurement, thereby advancing Freightos' vision of
comprehensive freight digitization and meaningfully increasing its
total addressable market, both in ocean and contract procurement.
This acquisition accelerates Freightos' growth, supports its
financial goals of achieving positive Adjusted EBITDA by the end of
2026 with available funds, while strengthening its market position
as a technology leader in the global freight industry.
Supply chain efficiency and agility have become critical in the
aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Red Sea crisis. The combined Freightos-Shipsta
offering will provide the most comprehensive modern platform for
selling and procuring freight services, connecting carriers,
freight forwarders, and importers/exporters on one unified digital
booking platform.
Shipsta, headquartered in Luxembourg, supports the freight procurement
of global companies by streamlining the tender management and
procurement processes across air, ocean, road, and rail, enabling
companies to easily solicit tenders from their freight forwarders
and carriers. Shipsta technology serves dozens of multinational
organizations across industries like retail, industrial, pharma,
automotive and others, and counts market-leading customers in all
of them, including Puma, Thyssenkrupp and Rockwool.
"The acquisition of Shipsta is a strategic milestone for
Freightos, enabling us to advance our vision of digitizing the
freight industry end-to-end," said Zvi
Schreiber, CEO of Freightos. "Shipsta's platform,
outstanding customer roster, and experienced team will add
significant value to our offering by introducing tender management
and contract procurement - a segment representing an estimated
50-70% of the total air and ocean freight market. The acquisition
addresses the needs of our importers, exporters, forwarders and
carriers that seek comprehensive solutions beyond spot freight
bookings and sales and we think customers will love the joint
offering. We're also excited to welcome Shipsta's outstanding
talent into the Freightos team."
This acquisition joins Shipsta's product capabilities, customer
base and team with the Freightos ecosystem, enhancing the overall
Freightos offering and driving revenue growth with immediate
cross-sell opportunities.
Shipsta's team, led by Christian
Wilhelm and Stefan Maratzki, will continue to lead Shipsta's
product development, innovation, customer success, and go-to-market
strategy. As part of the acquisition, Shipsta's current team will
join Freightos, and parts of Shipsta's roadmap will be accelerated
to further enhance tender management, provide improved operational
integrations and expand on market intelligence capabilities.
"Joining forces with Freightos marks a thrilling new chapter for
Shipsta," said Shipsta MD and founder Christian Wilhelm. "Shipsta and Freightos share
a mission to bring global freight online. Now, our customers will
continue to benefit from the outstanding Shipsta product and team,
with service and efficiency further enhanced, while driving new
efficiencies to the thousands of forwarders that leverage Freightos
and WebCargo by Freightos. Together, we expect to accelerate market
penetration, drive innovation, and set new industry standards in
freight."
The acquisition will be financed through a combination of cash
and equity. The consideration includes a cash payment of
approximately €4.5m from existing reserves and the issuance of
approximately 640 thousand Freightos shares to a key Shipsta
shareholder, subject to adjustment for working capital, and
customary holdbacks. This investment reinforces the Company's
confidence in having adequate cash on hand to achieve positive cash
flow. Shipsta is expected to contribute approximately $800 thousand to Freightos' revenue during the
last four months of 2024, with a moderate negative impact on
Adjusted EBITDA. Revenue contribution in 2025 is expected to be
between $4-5 million.
"We are pleased to meaningfully enhance our offering on
favorable deal terms," said Ran Shalev, Freightos CFO. "This
acquisition provides us with immediate cross-selling opportunities
for incremental growth while further aiding our path to positive
Adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2026 without requiring additional
capital. This acquisition strengthens our market position and
positions us well for future growth and success."
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements may be identified by the use of words such as
"estimate," "plan," "project," "forecast," "intend," "will,"
"expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "target" or other
similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or
trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These
statements, which include the financial outlook of Freightos, are
based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this
press release, and on the current expectations of Freightos, and
are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking
statements are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on
by any investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a
definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and
circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will
differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are
beyond the control of Freightos. These forward-looking statements
are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including
Freightos' ability to successfully integrate the Shipsta business
without disruption to its business; the ongoing military conflict
in the Middle East; Freightos'
ability to effectively execute its previously announced operational
efficiency and cost reduction plan without undue disruption to its
business; competition and the ability of Freightos to build and
maintain relationships with carriers, freight forwarders and
importers/exporters and retain its management and key employees;
changes in applicable laws or regulations; any downturn or
volatility in economic conditions whether related to inflation,
armed conflict or otherwise; changes in the competitive environment
affecting Freightos or its users, including Freightos' ability to
introduce new products or technologies; risks to Freightos' ability
to protect its intellectual property and avoid infringement by
others, or claims of infringement against Freightos; and those
additional factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in
Freightos' annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on
March 21, 2024, and any other risk
factors Freightos includes in any subsequent reports of foreign
private issuer on Form 6-K furnished to the SEC. If any of these
risks materializes or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual
results could differ materially from the results implied by these
forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks of which
Freightos is not aware presently or that Freightos currently
believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to
differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In
addition, forward-looking statements reflect Freightos'
expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of
the date of this press release. Freightos anticipates that
subsequent events and developments will cause Freightos'
assessments to change. However, while Freightos may elect to update
these forward-looking statements at some point in the future,
Freightos specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as
representing Freightos' assessments as of any date subsequent to
the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should
not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.
About Shipsta
Shipsta has revolutionized freight procurement with its
cutting-edge software solutions, seamlessly connecting shippers and
carriers. Founded by logistics veterans Christian Wilhelm together with Stefan Maratzki
in 2015, Shipsta has grown into a key player in the logistics
technology space. Its leadership team, with deep roots in
logistics, drives the company towards innovative solutions that
improve efficiency and sustainability in the industry. The team has
offices in Luxembourg and works
with dozens of leading global supply chain organizations across a
range of industries.
About Freightos
Freightos® (NASDAQ: CRGO) is the leading vendor-neutral global
freight booking platform. Airlines, ocean carriers, thousands of
freight forwarders, and well over ten thousand importers and
exporters connect on Freightos, making world trade faster, more
efficient and more resilient.
The Freightos platform digitizes the trillion dollar
international freight industry, supported by a suite of software
solutions that span pricing, quoting, booking, shipment management,
and payments for global businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Products include the Freightos Marketplace, WebCargo, WebCargo for
Airlines, Shipsta by Freightos, 7LFreight by WebCargo, and
Clearit.
Freightos is a leading provider of real-time industry data via
Freightos Terminal, which includes the world's leading spot pricing
indexes, Freightos Air Index (FAX) for air cargo and Freightos
Baltic Index (FBX) for container shipping.
More information is available at freightos.com/investors.
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Media
Tali Aronsky
tali.aronsky@freightos.com
Investors
Anat
Earon-Heilborn
ir@freightos.com
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SOURCE Freightos