Changi Airport spinoff looks to reinvent the fragmented freight and cargo industry

One might not immediately associate the freight and cargo industry with a high degree of digitalization, but a Singapore-based startup is looking to change that.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Changi Airport Group (CAG), Carigos started as an experiment in 2017 to digitalize the traditional freight and cargo space.

Changi Airport placed 12th in a recent international ranking of the world’s busiest airports for air cargo traffic, according to Airports Council International (ACI), a trade association for the world’s airports.

Singapore is a major hub for international shipments. Last year, CAG’s airfreight throughput reached 2.15 million tons, a 1.4% increase from the year before. Airfreight throughput grew across all segments of exports, imports, and transshipments, with China, Australia, Hong Kong, the US, and India being its top five markets for airfreight.

Carigos says it operates as an independent entity from CAG.

As a fourth-party logistics (4PL) service provider, Carigos is asset-light and seeks to work with third-party logistics (3PL) execution partners like freight forwarders, warehouses, and delivery companies. Through its online platform, the startup helps businesses – everything from ecommerce firms to semiconductor companies – that are seeking logistical solutions to team up with 3PL players.

The idea for an integrated, digital solution came about because the freight and cargo industry is traditional and fragmented, Andre Lim, Carigos’ chief commercial officer tells Tech in Asia.

For one, the nature of trade is complex. It is a dizzying web of import and export regulations spanning multiple jurisdictions that require various specialized players to navigate. An exporter looking to transport a large shipment of goods embarks on a tedious process of requesting different quotations from several freight forwarders before finally selecting a price-competitive one. Carigos’ main platform, Carigos.com, provides an online inquiry service. Upon request, users will receive a response with five competitive quotes within a day, allowing to quickly and easily weigh their options.

To a layman, moving cross-border goods sounds like an administrative nightmare. Freight forwarders handle everything from the “pickup of the goods, haulage to the port, documentation and customs process in the exporting country, [arranging for] air or sea freight with the carriers, documentation and customs clearance into the import country, and trucking to the importer’s warehouse,” Lim explains.

Carigos hopes to streamline and digitalize that process.

The Expedia of freight

Digital advances in passenger travel have far outpaced that of the freight and cargo industry. While online travel agencies like Booking.com and Expedia have simplified the experience of booking a passenger flight, a similar service did not until recently exist for the freight and cargo trade.

Likening itself to the Expedia of freight, Carigos offers a suite of services including ocean, air, land and express transport as well as warehousing and last-mile fulfillment. Its flagship product, Go.Carigos.com, is an instant quotation platform, though it’s limited to air and express shipments. The ability to offer instant quotes is significant because the standard process would otherwise take a few days.

If that sounds similar, it’s because Freightos, a logistics company, also offers an instantaneous service on its digital freight platform. Last year, the company raised $44.4 million of funds in a series C round led by the Singapore Exchange.

An end-to-end logistics solution

Future plans and macro indicators