Logistics Platform Raft Raises $30 Million to Enhance Automation Products
Raft has raised $30 million in Series B funding to further development of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered logistics platform.
The fresh capital will be put toward increasing the development and deployment of Raft core automation products, the company said in a Tuesday (July 11) press release.
“We founded Raft as an AI-first company because we saw an opportunity to empower freight forwarders and customs brokers with technology, and take pressure off their operational teams so that they could focus on their customers instead of their keyboards,” Raft Co-Founder and CEO James Coombes said in the release.
The platform, which was founded in 2017 when it was known as Vector.ai, serves 60 customers, including 40% of A&A’s Top 25 Global Freight Forwarders List, according to the press release. It has helped to automate the execution of over 300,000 shipments per month, helping customers save up to two hours on every shipment.
Raft’s latest funding round was led by global venture capital investor Eight Roads, with participation from existing investors, the release said.
“The team has leveraged a combination of industry expertise and cutting-edge AI to build a product that delivers immediate value to its customers,” Eight Roads Partner Michael Treskow said in the release. “There are many more concrete pain points Raft can solve for the industry, and we look forward to the team executing their vision.”
The logistics business has become more and more digital over the last three to five years, with shipping companies moving from Excel spreadsheets to online platforms, and cargo companies providing application programming interface (API) integrations, spot rates and next-generation features like dynamic pricing.
Critical business operations, including price setting, already rely on processes and tools that are steadily growing more digital and more efficient. At the same time, a next-generation cohort of business solutions are bringing to market solutions that lay AI over those existing data flows.
In a move made by Raft last fall, the company partnered with all-in-one logistics payment platform PayCargo to enhance the payment process for freight forwarders. This combination will enable freight forwarders to further automate their operations, eliminating the need to manually click through invoices, input data and make payments.
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