New-age freight forwarder Flexport has received a US$1 billion investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund, with significant participation from existing investors Founders Fund, DST Global, Cherubic Ventures, Susa Ventures and SF Express.
Flexport said in a statement: “These are partners who, like us, believe in a better, more interconnected world. Their support will propel us into that future as we use technology to make global trade easier for everyone.”
Watch: What is Flexport?
Flexport intends to use the investment to shape the digital transformation of the $2 trillion global freight forwarding sector, as well as the even larger $7 trillion global logistics industry.
Flexport has outlined three key aims after the investment:
1. To Build No One’s Built Before
Flexport is “dedicated to disrupting this idleness and seeking to make global trade easier and more accessible for everyone,” and the way “we’re doing it is by building what we call the Operating System for Global Trade.”
The Operating System for Global Trade is a strategic operating model for global freight forwarding that combines technology and analytics, logistics infrastructure, and hands-on supply chain expertise.
2. Investment In People
Flexport said: “For us to succeed we must hire, nurture, and empower a wide range of professionals with varied backgrounds, specializations and perspectives.
“After all, global trade is the most diverse industry in the world – every single transaction requires dozens of people with different cultural backgrounds, industries, and skill sets to set their differences aside to collaborate and get things done.”
3. Helping Communities In Need
Flexport said in a recent statement: “By leveraging our logistics network to support the nonprofits that work tirelessly on some of the world’s most intractable problems, we’re pioneering a new form of corporate philanthropy.
“And, even more special, we are getting incredible participation from our vast customer base as we facilitate product donations and deliveries from companies to the causes where they are needed most.”
Read more: Flexport Secures $100 Million Boost
