Freightos raises $44 million as start-up eyes container freight derivatives market

Singapore Exchange comes on as new investor for Israel-based start-up.

Freightos raised an additional $44.4 million in a third round of funding, led by the Singapore Exchange (OTC: SPXCF), as it seeks to expand into risk management tools for container shipping.

The new round brings Freightos’ total funding to $94.4 million.

Freightos’ software is used by freight forwarders to manage and automate quotes for container shipping. It also offers an online marketplace for freight forwarders to post offers for shipping containers, which allows shippers to comparison shop.

The five-year old company now has 1,200 logistics providers using its platform, providing one million instant freight quote requests each month. It also compiles those quotes into indexes for global container rates, which are available on SONAR under the FBX ticker.

As part of new funding round, the Singapore Exchange, which runs the country’s main stock and fixed-income exchange, is looking at offering derivatives based on Freightos indexes.

The Singapore Exchange “will explore the development of financial instruments to introduce the transparency, agility and risk-mitigation that other industries already enjoy, beginning with enhancements to the FBX container freight index shifting to daily reporting,” Freightos said in a release.

The Baltic Exchange, which is owned by the Singapore Exchange, is already providing a container shipping index based on Freightos’ weekly assessments.

As part of the development of the new financial derivative, Freightos says it will look to create a daily assessment for container rates.

“Freightos is at the forefront of a new wave of solutions for price discovery and digital marketplaces in global freight – an industry at the heart of the global economy,” said Michael Syn, head of derivatives for the Singapore Exchange. “SGX is excited by the potential to develop risj management tools and services, and build on Singapore’s unique position in the trade ecosystem, to bridge the physical and financial markets.”

Zvi Schreiber, the founder and chief executive of Freightos, says the growth of the platform “shows that importers and exporters are looking for radically better freight services, while carriers and forwarders are eager to deliver by leveraging technology.”

Other participants in the round include the venture capital arm of General Electric (NYSE: GE), ICV, Aleph and others.