Catapult founder swivels to new software provider

Matt Motsick, who founded the rate management software company a decade ago, is now fronting the freight forwarding ERP provider Swivel.    The founder of a well-known provider of freight forwarding rate management software has started a new company aimed at upending the enterprise forwarding software market.
   The new company, Swivel Software, will be led by Matt Motsick, previously the founder of Catapult International. Motsick grew Catapult into a primary vendor of rate and contract management tools for major to mid-size forwarders.
   Motsick left Catapult in September, two years after it was acquired by Dubai-based airline software provider Mercator, and invested in a Hong Kong-based software company called Paradigm Corp. That company had built a customer base in Asia, including companies like Air Sea Worldwide, Hankyu-Hanshin and Electrolux.
   The company rebranded in early 2018 as Swivel and targeted a broader space in the freight forwarding technology market than Motsick had previously inhabited. Swivel offers a suite of models, from warehouse management, to purchase order management, to control tower visibility, but it also offers a forwarding ERP designed to compete with what the company called the “legacy supply chain management systems market.”
   “Years of experience in supplying software tools to international supply chain operators has made us very familiar with the true needs of forwarders and logistics service providers,” Motsick said in a statement. “Providing detailed and real-time information for their customers; achieving reliable connectivity with branch and agency offices; uniting operational and financial data on one platform and all for a level of investment commensurate with a (small or medium-sized enterprise’s) budget.”
   The company’s founder, Mandy Mak, will serve as chief operating officer, while Motsick will serve as chief executive officer. Swivel will have operations in Hong Kong and Lenexa, Kan., the suburb of Kansas City where Motsick founded Catapult.
   Motsick said Swivel is focused on ease of use and digitizing traditional forwarding processes so that companies can better employ modern foundational tools like application programming interfaces (APIs) and future advancements like artificial intelligence.
   “There is currently a big technology lag,” Mak said. “Other sectors are advancing in web-based software. The global supply chain needs to adopt these tools to the e-commerce age and forwarders in particular, need to connect digitally.”