The freight booking and payment platform Freightos has acquired Shipsta, a Luxembourg firm that provides a digital freight transportation procurement service, for about $6.1 million, the firms said Monday.
According to Barcelona, Spain-based Freightos, the deal expands its existing spot pricing, quoting, and booking capabilities by adding tender procurement, thereby advancing Freightos' vision of comprehensive freight digitization and increasing its total addressable market, both in ocean and contract procurement.
The timing was right for the move because supply chain efficiency and agility have become critical in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Red Sea crisis, Freightos said. To cope with those challenges, the combined Freightos-Shipsta offering will provide a comprehensive platform for selling and procuring freight services, connecting carriers, freight forwarders, and importers/exporters on one unified digital booking platform.
Freightos paid about $6.1 million for the transaction, including $5 million in cash and 640,000 Freightos shares, worth about $1.15 million based on their NASDAQ trading level of $1.80 per share on Monday morning before the announcement.
Following the move, Shipsta's team, led by Christian Wilhelm and Stefan Maratzki, will continue to lead Shipsta's product development, innovation, customer success, and go-to-market strategy. As part of the acquisition, Shipsta's current team will join Freightos, and parts of Shipsta's roadmap will be accelerated to further enhance tender management, provide improved operational integrations, and expand on market intelligence capabilities.
Shipsta says its freight-tender procurement platform is used by dozens of Global 1000 enterprises to procure freight at scale from freight forwarders and carriers.
"The acquisition of Shipsta is a strategic milestone for Freightos, enabling us to advance our vision of digitizing the freight industry end-to-end," Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos, said in a release. "Shipsta's platform, outstanding customer roster, and experienced team will add significant value to our offering by introducing tender management and contract procurement—a segment representing an estimated 50-70% of the total air and ocean freight market. The acquisition addresses the needs of our importers, exporters, forwarders and carriers that seek comprehensive solutions beyond spot freight bookings and sales and we think customers will love the joint offering. We're also excited to welcome Shipsta's outstanding talent into the Freightos team."
