InstaFreight, Shell partner to transform European freight market

January 15, 2020: Shell and InstaFreight, a digital freight forwarding company are partnering to transform the European freight market. After successfully raising investment from Shell’s corporate venturing arm, Shell Ventures, InstaFreight will be working together with Shell to expand their digital services to carrier companies in Europe. The new partnership will help InstaFreight to accelerate its mission to digitalise the road freight space and transform the freight market.

InstaFreight is the next generation freight forwarding company for road freight in Europe. The company excels by making use of digitalisation to optimise processes and increase information transparency. The company thereby simplifies the freight forwarding business and focuses on providing practical benefits to shippers and carriers. Through the digitalisation of the forwarding business, the Berlin-based company can provide operational visibility and data for continuous process optimisation and offer fleet carriers a convenient way to receive the right business, track their vehicles as they transport goods around Europe, and get paid fast and reliably.

“The freight forwarding industry is already undergoing substantial disruption with digital models becoming more and more successful. We are very proud to have gained such a strong global player as Shell as our investor and partner. With the additional funds, we will continue our rapid growth, further improve our technology and make our services available to more shippers and carriers across Europe,” said Philipp Ortwein, co-founder and MD of InstaFreight.

With its global fuel card, Shell gives its carriers instant and ongoing access to a range of outstanding fuels, mobility products, and business services across the world's largest fuel retail network. The company aims to build a relationship with its customers by learning about their fleet management problems and then providing solutions for issues related to safety, maintenance, and fuel consumption using telematics, mobility services, and others.

“Our carriers who use the Shell fuel card are facing increasing expectations by their customers regarding digital capabilities. At the same time, they are operating in a market with tight margins. By partnering with InstaFreight, we can help provide our carriers to optimise their utilisation, increase their profitability and give them the real-time transparency their customers expect,” said Parminder Kohli, general manager business development, Shell Fleet Solutions.

Jermaine Saaltink, venture principal at Shell Ventures added, “We invest in start-ups with technologies and business models that have the potential to disrupt markets and provide better solutions for customers. We have been impressed by InstaFreight’s management team and the traction the company has achieved in the market in a short amount of time. We look forward to working together with them and be part of their continued success.”

Shell and InstaFreight plan to make use of the synergies and foster the growth of freight brokerage across international markets.

Shell Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell. With major offices in Europe, the US, India and China, Shell Ventures invests in innovative technology companies, business models to create substantial deployment value in Shell.