Freightos has announced its acquisition of Shipsta, a Luxembourg-headquartered multimodal tender procurement platform, to expand its spot pricing, quoting, and booking capabilities.

The online booking and rate firm Freightos said adding tender procurement will also advance its vision of a "comprehensive freight digitization" and meaningfully increase its total addressable market, both in ocean and contract procurement.

"This acquisition accelerates Freightos' growth and supports its financial goals of achieving positive Adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2026 with available funds while strengthening its market position as a technology leader in the global freight industry," the announcement said.

Freightos noted that supply chain efficiency and agility have become critical in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Red Sea crisis.

"The combined Freightos-Shipsta offering will provide the most comprehensive modern platform for selling and procuring freight services, connecting carriers, freight forwarders, and importers/exporters on one unified digital booking platform," it said.

Shipsta supports global companies' freight procurement by streamlining the tender management and procurement processes across air, ocean, road, and rail. This enables companies to easily solicit tenders from their freight forwarders and carriers.

Freightos said Shipsta technology serves dozens of multinational organizations in industries such as retail, industrial, pharma, automotive and others and has market-leading customers in all of them, including Puma, Thyssenkrupp and Rockwool.

Digitalising freight end-to-end

"The acquisition of Shipsta is a strategic milestone for Freightos, enabling us to advance our vision of digitizing the freight industry end-to-end," said Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos.

"Shipsta's platform, outstanding customer roster, and experienced team will add significant value to our offering by introducing tender management and contract procurement – a segment representing an estimated 50-70% of the total air and ocean freight market," he added.

Schreiber added that the acquisition also addresses the needs of its importers, exporters, forwarders and carriers, which seek comprehensive solutions beyond spot freight bookings and sales.

"We think customers will love the joint offering," he further said.

The acquisition joins Shipsta's product capabilities, customer base and team with the Freightos ecosystem, enhancing the overall Freightos offering and driving revenue growth with immediate cross-sell opportunities.

Shipsta's team, led by Christian Wilhelm and Stefan Maratzki, will continue to lead Shipsta's product development, innovation, customer success, and go-to-market strategy.

As part of the acquisition, Shipsta's current team will join Freightos and parts of Shipsta's roadmap will be accelerated to further enhance tender management, provide improved operational integrations and expand on market intelligence capabilities.

"Joining forces with Freightos marks a thrilling new chapter for Shipsta," said Christian Wilhelm, Shipsta MD and founder.

"Shipsta and Freightos share a mission to bring global freight online. Now, our customers will continue to benefit from the outstanding Shipsta product and team, with service and efficiency further enhanced while driving new efficiencies to the thousands of forwarders that leverage Freightos and WebCargo by Freightos. Together, we expect to accelerate market penetration, drive innovation, and set new industry standards in freight," he added.

The acquisition will be financed through a combination of cash and equity.

Freightos said the consideration includes a cash payment of approximately €4.5 million from existing reserves and the issuance of approximately 640 thousand Freightos shares to a key Shipsta shareholder, subject to adjustment for working capital and customary holdback.

It added that Shipsta's revenue contribution in 2025 is expected to be between US$4-5 million.