Visa and Transcard, which operates an all-in-one platform that enables companies to make, receive and manage all payments directly within their internal systems, are partnering to offer immediate freight financing to forwarders when making payments on the WebCargo air cargo booking platform from Freightos.
The product is designed to give WebCargo users quick access to working capital with flexible credit terms so they can pay for airline cargo reservations. The financing component, which works like a line of credit, is embedded within the automated payment workflow. The product is made possible by combining Visa’s global card settlement system with Transcard’s middleware payment technology, the companies said in a news release on Tuesday.
Carriers benefit by receiving assurance of payment on the original invoice.
WebCargo provides multi-party rate management, quoting, instant carrier pricing and booking for airlines and forwarders. It also has tools that let forwarders extend service to shippers.
“At Freightos, our mission is to make global trade frictionless,” said Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos, in the news release. “That means not only helping importers, exporters and freight forwarders to instantly compare, book, and manage freight services online — but also making it easier to pay for those services in a modern, seamless way. Our partnership with Visa and Transcard brings us one step closer to a future where international trade is as easy to transact as booking a flight or taxi online.”
Freightos hasn’t published the joint news release on its website. The Israel-based company is testing the new Visa/Transcard payment product with several customers and will push it out for universal use on the website in a few weeks, a spokesperson said in response to a query.
On Sunday, Freightos announced the hiring of Michael Netter, who has extensive experience with digital logistics, the IoT, and software-as-a-service, to help drive customer adoption across the freight sector. He previously was vice president of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa at software company Proemion. Prior to that he served as vice president of intermodal sales at project44 and CRO at Synfioo, where he managed the expansion of multimodal visibility solutions.
In related news, another digital airfreight marketplace emerged Friday as a competitor to Freightos. Japan-based ocean shipping line Mitsui O.S.K Line announced the launch of a neutral airfreight trading platform for spot market transactions called Umbrair.
MOL indicated in a news release that the air logistics sector is still stuck in old habits of booking freight by phone and email, ignoring the trend over recent years that has seen the rise of multi-party booking platforms such as Freightos, CargoAI and cargo.one, as well as airline websites with dynamic pricing and reservation engines.
Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
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