Paris-based Fretlink connects shippers to the largest hub of local carriers in Europe, helping them to secure, manage, and optimize their transportation plans, while helping carriers to drive their business growth. For those of you who are joining us at the EU-Startup Summit on May 2-3 in Barcelona, Fretlink Co–Founder & CEO Paul Guillemin will be joining us to speak on our Future of Transportation panel.
Founded in 2015, the road transit specialist has just raised €25 million in a Series B round from the corporates Edenred and TIP, as well as existing investors including Daphni, Elaia Partners, Breega Capital, The Family, SGH Capital and Tekton Ventures. Also participating in the round was the Weaving Invest fund and the business angel F Grinda.
Edenred has a sector dedicated to mobility, and more specifically, fleet management, while TIP specializes in leasing industrial vehicles, with more than 70,000 trucks in Europe. These two new investors should allow Fretlink to enrich its offer of services, as startup aspires to expand to integrate more offerings (including the purchase of trucks, equipment and accessories, and the management of fuel costs) throughout the transportation chain.
Fretlink’s platform currently centralizes data throughout the transportation chain, from shipper needs to available transportation capacity to transportation plans, allowing companies to optimize their logistics costs.
“Logistics monitoring helps to avoid additional costs,” said Guillemin. “By choosing a carrier only based on price comparison, shippers are encouraged to retain the one offering the most competitive rates, at the risk of having to pay compensation to its customers or suppliers if the shipment arrives late, for example.” Fretlink, by comparison, aims to guarantee its customers optimal visibility of logistical costs while allowing them to visualize possibilities for optimization.
The startup already counts more than 400 customers, including several big names such as Saint-Gobain, Nestlé, Bouygues, Intermarché, Alinéa, and ShowroomPrivate.
In addition to new services that Fretlink plans to integrate into its offering, the startup also plans to expand geographically. Although it already operates throughout Europe to be able to efficiently track shipments, the startup plans to open several sales offices in neighbouring countries, starting with Germany and Belgium, where the company is set to open in the summer, followed by Poland.
“Our customers have supply chains and problems on a European scale, with industrial sites in several countries and complex transport plans,” added Guillemin. “We hope, through this expansion, to develop strong relationships with local stakeholders and continue to build a standard of transport organization across Europe.“
With the new funds, Fretlink will also strengthen its workforce, now composed of about 80 people, with plans to recruit an additional 100 employees by the end of 2020.