Germany-headquartered freight forwarding software producer Forto secured $250m yesterday in a series D round featuring internet and telecommunications group Softbank’s Vision Fund 2 and AP Moller Holding, owner of shipping firm AP Moller – Maersk.
Investment firm Disruptive led the round at a $2.1bn valuation and was also joined by G Squared, Northzone and Unbound. The company has now accumulated a total of $610m in funding since it was founded as FreightHub in 2016.
Forto’s software allows businesses to digitise their shipping activities across sea, air and rail transportation, automating the offer, booking and document administration processes while making use of advanced data analytics to track shipments and plan activities in real time.
The company said yesterday it had raised the funding earlier than expected, and intends to expand into Poland, Belgium, Sweden and Southern Europe this year, following a 2021 when it opened offices in Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands and Vietnam.
Michael Wax, co-founder and chief executive of Forto, said: “We recognise that this is an exceptionally challenging period for many of our customers.
“As our business remains well-funded from our previous round in 2021, this new round will simply allow us to accelerate the execution of our existing strategy, particularly on our geographic expansion.
“It will allow us to further widen our customer offer, bring our technology platform support to customers in new markets and capitalise on new opportunities as they arise.”
The company was valued at $1.2bn in a $240m round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in June 2021 that included financial services firm Citi’s strategic investment vehicle, Citi Ventures, as well as G Squared Northzone, Cherry Ventures, Unbound and Inven Capital, the VC fund backed by energy utility Čez.
Inven Capital, Northzone, Cherry Ventures and Unbound all took part in the 2021 round as existing investors. Forto’s earlier backers include AP Moller – Maersk’s corporate venture capital vehicle, Maersk Growth, as well as Iris Capital, Rider Global, H14, Global Founders Capital, Cavalry Ventures and La Famiglia.
The most highly valued VC-backed freight forwarder is Flexport, which raised $935m last month in a series E round featuring SoftBank Vision Fund 1 at an $8bn valuation.
Other notable participants in the sector include Project 44, which secured $420m in a January 2021 round valuing it at $2.6bn post-money, and Arrive Logistics, which pulled in $300m in funding in April 2021.
