Ocean and air freight benchmarking startup Xeneta raises $28.5M

Ocean and airfreight benchmarking and market intelligence platform startup Xeneta AS today revealed it has raised $28.5 million in new funding to scale up operations, develop commercial and technical partner channels, expand into new regions and build out its in-house data analyst team. Pitched as challenging the status quo of traditional, volatile shipping markets, Xeneta applies digitization and a crowdsourced approach to gathering ocean and air freight rates. Xeneta said it has recently welcomed new customers such as General Mills Inc., Volvo Cars Corp., John Deere, Amer Sports Oyj, Rockwell Automation Inc. and CEVA Logistics. “As a result of COVID-19, the Suez Canal fiasco and the current Shenzhen Yantian port congestion, global trade and the supply chain have been severely crippled, presenting a slew of reliability and capacity challenges as well as record-high shipping rates,” Patrik Berglund, Xeneta’s co-founder and chief executive. “Yet, despite these global trade challenges, the last year has been a successful one for our company, as it shed light on the industry’s need for transparency in rates to keep the supply chain gears in motion.” Including the new funding, Xeneta has raised $49 million to date.