Berlin — Shell Ventures has announ­ced an invest­ment in Berlin-based digi­tal freight forwar­der Inst­aFreight. The company said it wanted to “help shape the future of the Euro­pean trans­port market”. Follo­wing the funding round, Inst­aFreight will coope­rate with the new backer in expan­ding its digi­tal offe­rings for freight opera­tors in Europe, he said, aiming to further acce­le­rate the digi­tiza­tion of road freight and the trans­for­ma­tion of the freight market.

Most recently, the New York hedge fund 683 Capi­tal had inves­ted a double-digit million sum in Inst­afreight toge­ther with the exis­ting inves­tors. Instafreight’s target group is B2B custo­mers who want to send indi­vi­dual pallets or complete truck­loads on their way. Photo Inst­aFreight (left to right): Markus J. Doetsch, Chief Tech­no­logy Offi­cer, Phil­ipp Ortwein, Co-Foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor, Maxi­mi­lian Schae­fer, Co-Foun­der and Mana­ging Director.

Conti­nue growth
The bottom line is that fleet opera­tors are offe­red a conve­ni­ent way to get the right deal, track their vehic­les as they trans­port goods across Europe, and get paid quickly and relia­bly. “The freight forwar­ding indus­try is alre­ady under­go­ing a profound trans­for­ma­tion, in which digi­tal approa­ches are beco­ming more successful and more preva­lent,” belie­ves Phil­ipp Ortwein, Co-Foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of Inst­aFreight. The company said it intends to use the capi­tal raised to conti­nue its rapid growth, further improve its tech­no­logy and make its services available to even more ship­pers and freight carri­ers across Europe.

Colla­bo­ra­tion in the further deve­lo­p­ment of services
By part­ne­ring with Inst­aFreight, SHELL aims to help carri­ers opti­mize their utiliza­tion with matching busi­ness, become more profi­ta­ble and provide them with real-time visi­bi­lity. Jermaine Saal­tink, Venture Prin­ci­pal of Shell Ventures, was convin­ced by the manage­ment team and the rapid growth that the digi­tal freight forwar­der has achie­ved in a short time. The coope­ra­tion should be more than a one-time finan­cial invest­ment. The two compa­nies will work closely toge­ther on the further deve­lo­p­ment of services. The part­ner­ship opens up the oppor­tu­nity to deve­lop new mobi­lity solu­ti­ons as well as expand and scale exis­ting trans­por­ta­tion solu­ti­ons and drive growth in freight brokerage in inter­na­tio­nal markets, Shell Ventures believes.

About Inst­afreight: The digi­tal freight forwarder
Inst­aFreight sees itself as a digi­tal freight forwar­der for road freight in Europe. Foun­ded in 2016, the company repor­tedly employs more than 100 people across Europe and carries out more than 5,000 trans­ports per month. The digi­tal plat­form bund­les the cargo space of more than 10,000 freight compa­nies, which ship­pers can access.