Ghent and London, 6th of June 2024: Qargo - the transport management solution transforming the logistics industry - has raised £11 million in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital. The new funding will be used to launch in new markets, develop the product and strengthen the engineering team to keep up with its fast-growing customer base.
The logistics industry is facing challenges including rising operating costs, demands to decarbonise, increases in fuel prices and a growing wave of cyber attacks, leading to lower margins. Over the past year, nearly 500 haulage companies collapsed in the UK alone under the weight of these pressures. To succeed, companies must streamline operations and automate manual processes to improve profitability.
Founded in 2020 by Adriaan Coppens (CEO), Joeri de Turck (CTO) and Sander de Wilde (Head of Engineering), Qargo’s solution addresses the needs of logistics companies and empowers them to achieve a more profitable and sustainable future.
Replacing legacy software with AI-powered workflow automation
Transport management software provides enterprise resource planning for logistics companies; this market is expected to grow to $19.1 billion by 2032. From order entry to route planning, tracking loads and invoicing customers, companies need an end-to-end solution which can handle all their needs. Traditionally the industry has relied on legacy systems, built-on-premise, with clunky, inflexible software, or offline Excel spreadsheets.
In contrast, Qargo’s cloud-first SaaS platform integrates seamlessly with customers’ systems, serving as their operating system. Qargo customers can process orders up to 10 times faster than traditional tools, auto-import PDFs and automate address lookups to make route planning and deliveries easier. The planning algorithm automatically combines loads into optimal journeys that minimise distance, duration and carbon emissions. This allows Qargo customers to reduce the number of empty miles, with empty or unfilled trucks producing more emissions than all international flights combined. Qargo also enables logistics companies to provide a great customer experience thanks to a state-of-the-art customer portal and deep integrations with shipper systems, so they have real-time visibility into transit for peace of mind.
Qargo’s customers have used the platform to slash fleet mileage and transform operational efficiency. One UK customer, Anglia Freight, has used Qargo to achieve an annual saving of over 200,000 miles, cut routes by over 20 minutes by vehicle per day and secure new contracts.
Revolutionising logistics
The platform is revolutionary for an industry which largely remains stuck in the past. Qargo has over 140 customers across Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK, including logistics market leaders Altrea Group and Uniserve Group, and last year the company tripled ARR. In March 2024 alone, Qargo’s software enabled 175,000 journeys, averaging more than 3,000 trucks a day, and its customers processed more than £35 million in invoiced revenue.
Adriaan Coppens, co-founder and CEO of Qargo, said: “Road transport is the backbone of European commerce and there’s no reason why it should be run on decades-old software. We’re proud that we can offer a secure cloud-based solution, with AI-based automation in an affordable subscription model that has helped our customers drive efficiencies in their business. Qargo is processing tens of millions in revenue and has become a true partner to the transport companies which are the backbone of many sectors. We’re delighted to partner with Balderton to power our growth and look forward to taking Qargo to the next level.”
Rob Moffat, partner at Balderton Capital, said: “Logistics is a $5T market globally but is often overlooked by software companies. Most companies in the sector are still using incredibly dated software which does not meet their needs, and working around this with whiteboards and calls. What we love about Adriaan, Joeri and Sander is that they are outsiders to the industry, having previously built a successful software business OTA Insight, but have completely immersed themselves in transport management software. They have built a modern SaaS that their users spend all day using and really love. I have never before heard customer testimonials as positive as Qargo's - their customers are really emotional about how Qargo improves their working lives. What’s more, the significant impact Qargo can have on carbon emissions, by reducing empty truck miles and improving asset utilisation, is really important to us.”
