All Freight Solutions Under 2 Minutes Singapore-based Freightify offers a SaaS platform to allow freight forwarders to digitally procure, manage and quote freight prices, including all possible ancillary charges
By Soumya Duggal •
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There is little consensus on the historical origins of the phrase 'pass the parcel', which became popularly associated with a classic British party game over the 20th century. Were the operations of the freight forwarding industry—encompassing the transfer of goods through road and rail transport as well as maritime and air channels—to be explained to a novice, the children's game might serve as an amusing analogy of sorts.
Singapore-based Freightify is making significant strides in the industry: its SaaS platform claims to allow freight forwarders to digitally procure, manage and quote freight prices (including all possible ancillary charges) in less than two minutes! (The '2-minute' timeframe is perhaps most markedly associated in India with the cooking time of Nestle's Maggi Noodles, the result of a legendary ad campaign conceptualised in the 1980s.)
Additionally, Freightify also provides tracking and tracing solutions that help in getting the live location of vessels and automated milestones. According to the company's founder and CEO, Raghavendran Viswanathan, technology democracy in the maritime industry was the primary driver for founding Freightify. "It initially started as a tech-enabled marketplace to conveniently search, book and track freight. This experience in making sea-freight automated paved the way to the SaaS pivot. This is similar to Shopify's pivot story from Snowdevil," he explains.
Being a vertical software company focused on developing technology products for a specific market, making investors, who typically are outsiders to the industry, understand and appreciate the impact of its technology was a task for the Freightify team. "It took time to educate and make them empathize with the problem we were solving," states Viswanathan. Earlier this month, the startup raised $12 million in a Series A round led by investment giant Sequoia Capital India, along with participation from TMV and Alteria Capital, among others.
The freight forwarding industry is said to be currently undergoing a process of digitization, one that accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic's proliferation. What advantage does Freightify have over its competitors in this scenario? "We have deep tech, product and process expertise in this industry, which gives us an edge in the market. A lot of our competitors are localized in their focus. We have a global presence and approach from the very beginning. Today, our team is present in nine countries, customers in more than 45 countries and partners in more than 20 countries. Product wise, we have the ability to get live rates from more than 15 less-than-container-load (LCL) and full-container-load (FCL) carriers and live rates from more than 70 airlines," claims Viswanathan.
His word of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs wishing to leave their mark in freight forwarding is to study the industry first, including its strengths, weaknesses and various stakeholders, before taking the big leap.
