425K investment for VU startup Cargoplot

Cargoplot recently raised 425K funding by several angels and ASIF Ventures, a startup fund run for, and by, VU, UvA and HvA students. Cargoplot is an online platform for e-commerce importers and freight forwarder, that aims to speed up the process of finding the best freight forwarder on specific routes for different types of cargo. The FreightTech startup will use these fresh funds to improve its product and ramp-up sales.

Find expert freight forwarders quickly and intuitively
Cargoplot makes it faster and more intuitive for e-commerce importers to find the expert freight forwarder on a specific route for specific types of cargo. Making use of Machine Learning and Big Data techniques, it enables the matching between the two parties, ensuring a freight forwarding partner who is able to get your cargo to the other side of the world in a timely and transparent manner.

The platform is developed in close collaboration with freight forwarders and e-commerce importers to ensure that the communication and exchange of documents is streamlined and centrally stored.

Expertise and network
Maarten de Reij, founder and CEO of Cargoplot, emphasizes the importance of bringing transparency and digitalization to an notoriously obscure and low-digitized sector: “This investment allows Cargoplot to increase efficiency and scale in providing international traders with the right freight forwarding partners. The investor base brings industry expertise as well as a rich network in the startup community, both will be invaluable to our future course.”

The pre-seed round of €425K is a co-investment of Amsterdam-based investment fund ASIF Ventures and several angels. “The relentless drive and knowledge around the freighting sector allowed Cargoplot to execute adequately and create a product that solves a real problem. Bringing transparency and connectivity to a sector that is in need of this digital transformation”, says Kyra Dresen, director at ASIF Ventures.

Cargoplot was founded in 2020 by Maarten de Reij, Daniel Schreij, and Henk-Jan Meijer. Currently, the platform is showing great traction, enabling a doubling of revenue every month in the half year leading up to the investment.

Startup ecosystem
Founded in 2020 in Demonstrator Lab, Cargoplot got accepted into ACE Incubator, after which it received substantial funds through a network of investors and ASIF Ventures. A good example of a well-functioning Amsterdam university startup ecosystem! And of course, an amazing achievement of alumni Maarten de Reij (Science Business and Innovation), Daniel Schreij and Henk-Jan Meijer (Artifical Intelligence) and their partners.