Fretlink raises €25m funding to build a new road freight organization standard

– FRANCE, Paris – Fretlink today announced in its Blog that the company has raised 25 million euros to build a new road freight organization standard.

We are proud to announce today that our Series B funding round raised 25 million euros. Since we succeeded in connecting large shippers and regional transport systems, we are now kicking things into high gear to move into a new era thanks to a new standard for organizing road freight. We now have all the plans we need to accelerate and assist with the sector’s transformation and to become a leader in the European market.

For the last three years, Fretlink has been working on a truly transformational project on road freight. The 5,000 carriers already working alongside us as well as our 400 major loaders and 80 employees have already been experiencing this project every day. All of them have noticed a change in perceptions on the market: technology, automation, and centralization of operations are clearly perceived as the future of road freight by these actors.

Far from being yet another platform to connect supply and demand or just one more transport management system (TMS), our solution brings with it the promise of a new era in road freight. It is a unique, unprecedented model for securing the transport plans of major loaders, automated and piloted by data.

For Fretlink, the technology is not an end in and of itself. Instead, it is a means of resolving a more wide-reaching problem at the organizational level of road freight management as it is currently operated. The limits of current operations are already known and include lack of capacity, lack of transparency, and lack of guarantees for the price or quality of services. It is high time to turn the page and lastingly change road freight management.

It is a pleasure for us to welcome Edenred Capital Partners to the team. They are a venture capital firm connected to Edenred Group, which markets B-to-B payment solutions (such as fuel cards for heavy vehicles in Europe via the subsidiary UTA). We would also like to welcome TIP, a European leader in renting maintaining and repairing semi-trailer trucks.

Our traditional partners (Daphni, Elaia Partners, Breega Capital, The Family, SGH Capital and Tekton Ventures) have moreover demonstrated their renewed faith in and support for our efforts during this latest round of funding.

“We have been very impressed by the expertise developed by Paul Guillemin and his team. Their in-depth knowledge of the market and its challenges allows them to answer all the questions we could possibly ask! This new investment marks a turning point: Fretlink is entering a new phase of growth to implement an unprecedented standard for organizing road freight. We are thrilled to be a part of this venture and to continue to support the team by participating in this new round of funding.” — Samantha Jerusalmy, an Elaia partner.

We are also being joined by the investment fund Weaving Invest (a subsidiary of Weaving Group) as well as Fabrice Grinda (via the investment fund FJ Labs), a visionary angel investor with over 150 investments around the world in innovative companies (such as Airbnb, Alibaba Group, BlaBlaCar, Palantir Technologies, Dropbox, and more).

To secure shippers’ transportation plans, we must first and foremost guarantee reliable capacity. In the current situation where the market is driven by supply, not demand, the loyalty of transport companies has become the major asset sought after by decision makers.

For this reason, the next step in our development involves creating a services platform for our carriers partners. Having Edenred and TIP join our team gives us the unique opportunity to build a command center for them. Both of these leaders are well-established in their respective fields. They have been able to bring together a large community of transport companies in Europe which will be a major advantage for Fretlink.

Our platform will offer a variety of advantages and services including the ability to purchase trucks, equipment, and accessories as well as an optimization service for managing fuel costs. These attributes will help transport companies effectively pilot their own development and operate better on a daily basis. Access to the platform is an additional benefit on top of the growth opportunities, digital tools and operational and administrative support Fretlink already provides to its partners.

“We immediately appreciated the Fretlink team for being comprehensive, structured, competent, and above all, ready for roll-out. We are thrilled to provide fuel to help it grow and build this service platform that we fully believe in and which will help improve the lives of drivers. For the last three years, we have been developing a number of services for transport companies through our subsidiary UTA. These services include maintenance, washing, and toll cards, among others. We would like to bring this expertise to Fretlink to help it become a major platform.” — Norbert Furnion, a managing partner at Edenred

“Transport is an old practice that must modernize. For four years, we have been conducting a systematic approach to innovation and we encourage it through our industrial partnerships and by acquiring a stake in companies, as we did here with Fretlink, to assist with the necessary transformation. The complementarity of the services we provide (maintenance, roadside assistance, secure parking areas, and more) seemed obvious from the very first meeting. We truly believe in the changes that Fretlink is offering.” — Didier Felice, TIP vice president of the Mediterranean region

The start-up has already been operating in 22 European countries since 2018, but now we want to build even closer ties with decision makers and transport companies throughout Europe.

Our customers already have supply chains and issues at a European level with industrial sites in several countries and complex transport plans. With this expansion, we hope to grow strong relationships with local actors and continue to build a transport organization standard throughout Europe.

This expansion will begin first in Germany and Belgium, where the future Fretlink offices are scheduled to be opened at the end of the 2nd quarter of 2019.

Fretlink already has 80 employees and it plans to further increase its numbers to strengthen its R&D, product design and solution development, marketing, transport partnership, operational coordination, and overall operations teams.

Diversity among employees’ backgrounds is what makes Fretlink so powerful. We have brought together worlds that have not previously truly communicated with one another. We now hope to continue this process by carrying on in our efforts to surround ourselves with the best talent in every field.

In order to reach these goals, we are creating 100 new positions across the company by the end of 2020.

For more information: http://www.fretlink.com