For years, freight forwarding has promised digital transformation, yet much of the industry still runs on email chains, attachments, and manual workflows. Now, London-based startup Nexcade is stepping out of stealth with a bold mission: to bring end-to-end AI automation to the world of global freight forwarding.
The company announced a $2.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Connect Ventures, with participation from MMC Ventures, Entropy Industrial Capital, Inovia, and angel investors including Charlie Songhurst and Keith Wallington.
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“We wanted to reach the point where the product truly delivers the value we envisioned,” said Dan Bailey, CEO and co-founder of Nexcade. “By building closely with early customers and refining workflows, we’re now ready to put the foot on the gas from a growth perspective, and a public presence, and this funding helps us do that.”
Bailey’s journey to Nexcade is rooted in hands-on experience across supply chain software platforms. Two years ago, in his prior role as COO of Sedna, he and his team acquired a company focusing on freight document automation, which revealed a stark reality: despite automation tools, many forwarders still relied on spreadsheets, recreating manual processes in digital form. “Half of the forwarders we saw were taking automated data and putting it back into spreadsheets. It was clear that complexity in international freight couldn’t be unlocked until AI reached the level of maturity it has today,” Bailey explained.
This realization shaped Nexcade’s focus. Unlike other products targeting U.S. brokerage markets, Nexcade approaches freight forwarding with a global perspective. Initially focusing on air and ocean, the company helped forwarders automate spot quotation and sourcing rates across international shipments, navigating complex routes and coordinating costs across many carriers, agents, and customs brokers. The platform is live across all modes of transport, tackling the fragmentation that has long stifled efficiency and visibility in global trade.
At the heart of the challenge is unstructured communication. Endless emails, quote requests, and rate negotiations rarely make it into a TMS, leaving critical decisions and revenue opportunities outside automated workflows. Nexcade’s AI agents capture this chaos and convert it into structured processes.
“We spend time in the weeds, understanding how operators source rate information, manage spot quoting, and handle exceptions,” Bailey said. “Everything comes across these issues, and we’ve built those concepts into the product so it’s easy to configure and interact with.”
The platform also prioritizes resilience and human oversight. Operators can configure rules for specific situations, and the AI continuously learns from feedback, improving accuracy with every interaction. “In freight, if your system breaks on edge cases, what’s the point?” Bailey said. “Our goal is to give operators the tools they need so workflows continue smoothly, even when exceptions arise.”
Rory Stirling, General Partner at Connect Ventures, emphasized the combination of customer insight and technical expertise that makes Nexcade stand out. “Dan and Tasho combine domain knowledge with deep technical strength,” Stirling said. “In a market full of hype, their speed of execution and ability to deliver real value to leading freight forwarders have truly impressed us.”
The timing for Nexcade’s launch is no accident. Freight forwarders are under pressure from compressed margins, volatile rates, and rising operational complexity. Simultaneously, AI has reached a tipping point where it can reliably interpret natural language and handle exception-heavy workflows.
“The industry is more willing to change than ever before,” Bailey said. “Five to ten years ago, introducing technology was a slow process. Today, leadership teams recognize technology as an asset, and AI adoption is accelerating.”
Since its stealth launch, Nexcade has partnered with forwarders including Zencargo, Cardinal Global Logistics, and XPO. The company is experiencing 40% month-over-month workflow growth and has invested heavily in engineering talent in London.
The next phase includes expanding its commercial team, strengthening go-to-market capabilities, and scaling adoption across the global freight forwarding community. Over the next 18 to 24 months, Nexcade aims to capture data across the full shipment lifecycle, creating truly end-to-end automation.
For Nexcade, success is not just about growth or funding. It’s about redefining how freight forwarders operate. By bridging the gap between unstructured communication and structured workflows, the company aims to enable faster decision-making, more resilient operations, and improved profitability. In an industry long dependent on tribal knowledge and manual processes, Nexcade’s AI promises a new era of intelligence, speed, and visibility in global trade.
