ConsolFreight was founded in 2016 as a collaborative platform that uses breakthrough technology such as blockchain and IoT to help improve the logistics and supply chain current processes. In a very busy 2019, ConsolFreight has enhanced and better positioned the role of freight forwarders, helping them to grow their business and evolve with the current times.
The year began with a strong position as ConsolFreight management secured seed funding of EURO 600,000 amount in February. This funding was used to open operational offices in Barcelona and hire key personal including Francisco Montenegro (Business Development), Justyna Ward (Operations), Magda Torres (Community Manager) and Katarzyna Zaparte (Design / UX)
The CEO Ernesto Vila is also based in Barcelona where he can lead the team to reach a global audience.
The funding was also used to rebrand the company as it developed the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for its e-Forwarder product in May. Testing of the MVP e-forwarder progressed strongly with the addition of first e-forwarder paying clients in LATAM and Africa.
Using the success of the MVP and feedback from early adopters, ConsolFreight then entered into a partnership in September with EOS Dublin to build a Proof of Concept (POC) on the EOS blockchain to provide technical positives of immutability and transparency to the platform.
The POC was intended to provide liquidity, create new revenue streams, and ultimately advance the role of freight forwarders in the Supply Chain. Trade Forward is a new business model of collaboration amongst insurance companies, financial institutions, and logistics providers.
This model, where the freight forwarders are the centerpiece, brought the following benefits:
- SMEs financial inclusion
- Full oversight of trade asset movement
- Streamline data exchange between the multiple parties
- Risk mitigation and redistribution along the Supply Chain
- Optimized operational liquidity for exporters and importers
- Decreased paperwork and institutional bureaucracy
By October, ConsolFreight had successfully obtained a European TradeMark for e-Forwarder.
This led onto an ambitious POC with the support of Telefonica, who provided connectivity through Kite, their IoT connectivity platform. It also included the continued collaboration of key organizations such as EOS Dublin using EOSIO blockchain technology, the Florida Blockchain Foundation, and Anova Marine, which provided insurance coverage to the transported cargo.
This revolutionary test was carried out by a dedicated team of experts in blockchain, logistics, supply chain management, and finance. Members of the ConsolFreight ecosystem were conducting pilots along with companies like Telefonica and Anova Marine. These partnerships are allowing smaller players to get access to larger organization solutions, generating technological inclusion. The first TradeForward shipment was handled by freight forwarder Tech Cargo in the region of North America. The following shipments will be carried out by Freight and Transit Co. LTD to enable non-traditional trade finance in the African continent. Additional pilots in LATAM will be carried out by ADEKO Enterprises S.A., Globalog S.A., and Tree Logistics.
“Banks are short-sighted in determining and validating the value of the goods being financed. They have drawn a very distinctive line between Logistics and Financial institutions, where the value of the assets is entirely disconnected from the process. Thus, leaving an untapped market of unfulfilled credit demand estimated at $1.6 trillion,” says ConsolFreight’s CEO, Ernesto Vila.
“After the POC we attracted the attention of traditional and non-traditional financial institutions as well as world renowned Financial Risk insures and we are working on executing contracts for the proper escalation of several financial products such as freight invoice Finance,” he added.
Following hot on the heels of the successful POC, Vila presented a full report at the IoT World congress in Barcelona, gathering global attention for this disruptive and ambitious project.
Vila and ConsolFreight management have been on stage at many conferences over the year including SIL Barcelona, the Blockchain and AI summit in Malta, and Google Startuponomics. The company will continue to actively attend conferences to share the vision in the coming year.
Finally, as the year drew to a close, ConsolFreight announced the opening of new offices in America to host the ConsolFreight sales team.
In conclusion, CEO Vila says: “2019 has been an amazing year for ConsolFreight as we transition from startup to global business. We want to thank our many partners, clients and of course team members for making it happen. 2020 is going to be a rocket year as we commercialise our business and disrupt in a positive way the world of freight forwarding. Wishing everyone a very prosperous New Year.”
If you want to know more and become part of our Early Adopter Program, sign up here.
For more information please visit the website
See more articles on many topics including but not only blockchain by Jillian for Irish Tech News here.
More information about Irish Tech News and the Business Showcase
FYI the ROI for you is => Irish Tech News now gets over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!
Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 16000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.
Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview, or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles. Contact us, by email, twitter, facebook, email or whatever social media works for you and we will share and promote your story too and reach our global audience in over 180 countries across every continent.
If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking
