Supply chain start-up in the spotlight: Cargonexx

Cargonexx

Germany-based start-up Cargonexx is a European pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence in road transport and is the first digital freight forwarder to operate an intelligent transport network. Founded in Hamburg in 2016 and having raised €600,000 in capital so far, the Cargonexx logistics platform uses artificial intelligence and self-learning algorithms to make efficient use of free truck capacities.

At the very beginning, the algorithm was trained with 750,000 real datasets. Today, the algorithm refers to a dataset of more than 2 million entries. External factors such as weather or traffic volume are also taken into account. With just one click, set loads and free transport capacities can be brought together simply and safely, reducing empty runs. As a result Cargonexx, currently employing around 30 people and led by CEO and co-founder Rolf-Dieter Lafrenz, helps freight forwarders and carriers to save time and money as well as eliminating unnecessary traffic from Europe’s busy roads.

The truck transport company is currently working on the development of intelligent algorithms that constantly recalculate probabilities for transport capacities and automatically optimize themselves. This will allow future trips to be forecast independently by the Cargonexx algorithm. Countless empty kilometres and long waiting times for transporters will soon be a thing of the past.

Awards for Cargonexx

Over 5,000 transport companies with more than 70,000 trucks are currently registered on the platform and, in addition to Germany, Cargonexx now also operates in Austria, Denmark, Poland and the Baltic countries. The company has already won several European prizes and awards for the further development of the concept to increase capacity utilization in the transport industry towards predictive matching. In March, for example, the start-up received the European Commission’s award for the best mobility start-up in Europe for its innovative business model. The Boston Consulting Group and Europcar were also represented on the expert jury.

Previously, Cargonexx received the Spark Award – the German Digital Prize awarded by the business newspaper Handelsblatt and consulting company McKinsey, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper’s Trail Blazers Award and the Polish Innovation Award for logistics companies. Cargonexx was also the only European trucking start-up among the five finalists for the ‘Supply Chain Start-up Award Europe’ presented by Supply Chain Media during the inNOWvate 2018 event in Amersfoort, The Netherlands.