Shypple, the global digital freight forwarding platform, has announced securing a Series A funding round of €7.1 million from Dutch Founders Fund, Newtown Partners via the Imperial Venture Fund, BOM Brabant Ventures and InnovationQuarter. The funds will be used to further develop the platform, which is disrupting the €295 billion global traditional freight forwarding market.
The startup states that over 90% of global trade is transported by sea, and about 90% of this freight forwarding business is fragmented and heavily dependent on excel spreadsheets, emails, telephone calls and other error-prone modes to communicate and manage trade. The unprecedented issues as result of the corona pandemic and most recently the Suez canal illustrate how fragile global trade can be and how much need there is for more real time planning, control and flexibility. Along with each vessel, a crate of paperwork is flown to the destination port, demonstrating that this huge market is desperately longing for innovation, which Shypple is providing through its technology-driven platform.
Founded in 2016, the Shypple platform and digital freight forwarding service already connects over 3,000 businesses, including Bunzl and HKliving to manage and improve their supply chain. Shypple offers companies end-to-end transparency and complete control over their supply chain. Creating true value through increased efficiency, direct transport cost savings, minimizing errors, performance improvements of suppliers and forwarders and better consolidations, optimizing global trade. Companies can also increase operational FTE efficiency by 30% through the use of Shypple’s technology.
Shypple is ideally positioned to drive global digital transformation of freight forwarding from the European continent. The company is headquartered in Rotterdam, also home to Europe’s largest port, with close proximity to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, and has offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai.
“With our investors backing us with funding, supply chain expertise and global industry leadership, we are very excited about the future. This strengthens our determination to further develop the Shypple platform and increase usability for our customers,” says Jarell Habets, founder and CEO of Shypple. “In addition, this funding also enables us to initiate acquisitions to grow the volume of our business.”
“The potential for Shypple to revolutionize the traditional and opaque freight forwarding industry is huge,” says Llew Claasen, co-founder and managing partner at South Africa based Newtown Partners. He continues: “Shypple is ideally positioned to drive disruptive innovation from Europe. We are excited to partner with them with our extensive knowledge and network in tech and international logistics and change the business over the next few years.”
