Lufthansa Cargo has acquired a minority stake in cargo.one, a startup company based in Berlin.

According to Lufthansa, cargo.one is a platform which enables the marketing and booking of air cargo capacity with dynamic spot rates.

“cargo.one is another important step towards the digitization of our industry,” said Peter Gerber, CEO and chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa Cargo. “We are pleased to have been one of the first airlines to recognize the potential of this multi-airline platform for our customers and to have made ourselves compatible. We are impressed with the technology and user-friendly product. We are also driving digitization in our industry through cooperation with startups and financial investments such as that in cargo.one. Our customers’ overall experience is now strongly improved by being able to more efficiently book air cargo capacity.”

cargo.one was founded in 2017 by Moritz Claussen, Oliver T. Neumann and Mike Rötgers.

“The investment in our technology signals to our customers that cargo.one is a strong partner with which to join forces to drive air cargo digitization,” said Claussen. “Air cargo capacity worldwide can be made available online through our innovative distribution technology. Accordingly, we want to grow to become a global leader. The minority investment by Lufthansa Cargo now also demonstrates that even a star player in the industry is impressed with our technology.”

Lufthansa Cargo invested in Portland-based technology startup Fleet Logistics in early 2018. The company was founded in 2014 and acts as an online marketplace, matching customer demand for cargo services with free capacity provided by logistics companies.

Since February 2018, Lufthansa Cargo has also been cooperating with technology accelerator Plug and Play as anchor partner. Based in Sunnyvale in the US, Plug and Play brings technology startups and established companies together so that they can combine their efforts within the supply chain and logistics platform to further develop and implement new digital solutions.

“The close cooperation between Lufthansa Cargo and technology startups melds comprehensive air cargo experience with a technology-driven, fresh view of global logistics processes,” said Boris Hueske, head of digital transformation at Lufthansa Cargo. “By acquiring a share in cargo.one and Fleet Logistics, Lufthansa Cargo is emphasising its strategic commitment to elevating the air cargo industry to a higher level of digital maturity.”