A flotilla of startups wants to streamline global supply chains

FORTO SEEMSVC an unlikely tech darling. It does not make gadgets, build the metaverse, forge cryptocurrencies or launch rockets. The six-year-old startup from Berlin, whose main business is arranging the transport of cargo from one place to an other, has nevertheless managed to raise nearly $600m from venture capitalists. Its backers reckon the firm can shake up the archaic freight-forwarding industry. It has tripled its business in each of the past four years, boasts Michael Wax, its boss, and is now one of the top ten forwarders in the busy trade lane between China and Germany. In March it announced $250m in new funding at a valuation of $2.1bn.Forto is not the only freight tech startup attracting investors’ attention. With the world’s supply chains gummed up by bottlenecks, lockdowns and other disruptions, venture-capital () firms are pouring billions into companies offering ways to make freight transport more efficient. In 2021 supply-chain-technology firms raised more than $62bn, according to PitchBook, a data provider, more than twice the figure in pre-pandemic 2019 (see chart). Of that, nearly $9bn went to freight-tech startups. PitchBook counts more than a dozen private freight-tech “unicorns”, valued at more than $1bn. Viki Keckarovska of Transport Intelligence, a firm of consultants, expects more funding rounds this year.