Global trade runs on timetables and trust—but for decades, pricing a shipment, securing capacity, and paying for it felt more like dialing into a call center than tapping into a modern marketplace. Freightos Limited has spent the last decade attacking that friction head-on, building a vendor-neutral booking and payments platform designed to bring airline, ocean, and forwarding capacity into the age of instant search, quote, and book. As digitization finally takes root in logistics, Freightos is trying to be the connective tissue between carriers, freight forwarders, and importers/exporters. The company’s latest results show accelerating growth and improving unit economics. But here’s the catch: profitability remains a work in progress, and the macro’s still choppy. Now, why does this matter? Because network platforms in massive, analog markets can scale fast—until they don’t. The question for investors is whether Freightos has the right mix of volume growth, product breadth, and financial discipline to turn a defensible network into enduring cash flows.
Company Overview: What Freightos Does—and Why It Exists
Freightos operates a vendor-neutral digital booking and payments platform for international freight, with two principal fronts: a platform connecting carriers and freight forwarders, including dynamic airline rates and eBookings and instant rate comparison, booking, and shipment management for importers/exporters. The company layers in SaaS tools like WebCargo Rate & Quote for air and multimodal, real-time booking analytics for airlines (WebCargo for Airlines), and digital customs brokerage via Clearit, while also distributing industry data like the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) and the Freightos Air Index through its Freightos Terminal product. This end-to-end stack targets the core bottlenecks of global freight: opaque pricing, slow procurement cycles, disparate systems, and manual payments
Founded in the early 2010s, Freightos went public on Nasdaq through a SPAC combination in January 2023 under the ticker CRGO, positioning itself as the “booking layer” for a trillion-dollar industry that’s only now normalizing after pandemic-era extremes. The strategic thrust has been clear: build transaction density (bookings), expand carrier and buyer participation, and monetize the ecosystem with a mix of platform fees and recurring SaaS/data subscriptions.
Financials: Growth Re-Accelerates, Losses Narrow
Freightos reported second-quarter 2025 revenue of $7.4 million, up 31% year over year, with IFRS gross margin of 67.1% and non-IFRS gross margin of 73.5%, reflecting improved scale and mix; the IFRS loss narrowed to $4.3 million from $5.3 million a year ago, and adjusted EBITDA improved slightly to -$2.9 million from -$3.1 million in Q2 2024. For the first half of 2025, revenue reached $14.4 million versus $11.0 million in the first half of 2024, with gross profit of $9.6 million and operating loss of $9.2 million, as management continued to invest in R&D and go-to-market.
On the balance sheet, cash, cash equivalents, and short-term bank deposits were $34.1 million at June 30, 2025, giving the company runway to pursue its target of breakeven adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2026; operating cash flow use narrowed versus the prior-year period, aided by disciplined expense control and hedging that mitigates FX volatility on cash. The quarter also showed durable volume momentum: 397,000 transactions in Q2 2025, up 26% year over year and the 22nd consecutive quarterly record, with gross booking value rising 56% to $317 million—a sign that network effects and product breadth are translating into higher throughput. Management highlighted stronger solutions revenue (SaaS/data/customs) at $4.9 million, up 36% year over year, and platform revenue at $2.5 million, up 23%, with Shipsta as an incremental contributor.
“We remain steadfast in our goal to reach breakeven Adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2026,” CFO Pablo Pinillos said, while noting currency fluctuations could modestly impact near-term adjusted EBITDA without significantly affecting closing cash due to hedges.
The Shipsta acquisition
In August 2024, Freightos acquired Shipsta, a freight-tender procurement platform, expanding its coverage from spot booking to contract procurement and creating cross-sell between forwarders, shippers, and existing Freightos tools. The deal included €4.5 million in cash and approximately 640,000 shares; Shipsta was expected to contribute ~$0.8 million to 2024 revenue (last four months) and $4–5 million in 2025, with a modest near-term drag on adjusted EBITDA—a reasonable trade-off for product expansion and deeper enterprise penetration. Management has tied the acquisition to its pathway to positive adjusted EBITDA by end-2026.
Stock Performance and Market Profile
As of mid-August 2025, Freightos’ market capitalization stood around $162.6 million, placing it squarely in micro-cap territory, with a 52-week range of $1.27–$4.42 and a notable all-time high immediately post-listing in early 2023; shares are up roughly 90% over the past year as execution and volume growth improved. Liquidity is modest, with average daily volume under 100,000 shares in recent weeks, and traditional valuation multiples like P/E aren’t meaningful given negative earnings, though investors often track price-to-sales and enterprise value to revenue as proxies for platform progress. Trading platforms and screeners show consensus price targets in the $4–5 range where listed, reflecting cautious optimism but also micro-cap risk dynamics.
Where Freightos Fits: Competitors and Context
Freightos is often compared with digital freight forwarders and logistics tech platforms. While Flexport is a frequent reference point, Flexport operates more as a digital forwarder and logistics provider, whereas Freightos positions itself as a vendor-neutral marketplace and SaaS provider connecting carriers, forwarders, and shippers—more akin to a booking rail for the industry than a single service provider. Other adjacent players include visibility platforms (e.g., Shippeo), shared truckload and brokerage innovators (e.g., Flock Freight), and broader freight tech stacks that address procurement, rate management, and visibility. CB Insights’ competitor mapping places Freightos alongside Flexport, Flock Freight, Shippeo, and a long tail of logistics tech startups—an indication that digitization is fragmenting the value chain and that platform neutrality can be a strategic differentiator when courting both carriers and forwarders.
What the Numbers Signal: Unit Economics and Leverage
The story embedded in Q2 2025 is that higher transactions and improving gross margins can coexist with disciplined opex growth, nudging operating losses lower even as the company integrates new products. IFRS gross margin at 67.1% and non-IFRS at 73.5% suggest healthy software-like contribution, especially as solutions revenue scales; platform revenue growth in the low-20%s indicates the marketplace is deepening, while 56% GBV growth points to successful penetration of higher-value booking flows and broader adoption across carriers and forwarders. The 22nd straight quarter of record transactions is the sort of compounding metric that network marketplaces live and die by. But to sustain this trend, Freightos must continue adding carriers (up to 75 in Q2 from 71 in Q1) and unique buyer users (up 6% to ~20,200), which drives liquidity and defensibility.
Risks, Challenges, and Macro Reality
- Freight cycles and trade flows: Freightos is exposed to international trade volumes, spot-vs-contract mix, and regional disruptions—from Red Sea route risks to shifting tariffs—which can impact transaction velocity and GBV. Management explicitly calls out macro, policy, and conflict-related pressures as ongoing uncertainties.
- Competitive intensity and disintermediation: Large forwarders building in-house tools, and digital-forwarder models like Flexport, can compress marketplace fees or steer demand away. Retaining a neutral stance and broad integrations is key to maintaining trust on both sides of the market.
- Execution on profitability: The company is targeting breakeven adjusted EBITDA by end-2026, but that journey will hinge on sustained double-digit revenue growth, rigorous cost discipline, and smooth integration of acquisitions like Shipsta, which management acknowledges may carry a modest near-term EBITDA drag
- FX and currency exposure: With a global footprint, currency swings can influence reported results; Freightos has indicated hedging will dampen effects on cash even if it modestly affects adjusted EBITDA.
Opportunities: From Procurement to Payments and Data
- End-to-end digitization: Extending from spot booking into tender procurement (via Shipsta) opens a larger wallet with enterprise shippers and forwarders, boosting stickiness and multi-product adoption.
- Airline and ocean carrier eBookings: As airlines like China Airlines and Air Europa join, airline density and service diversity rise—air has been a standout for digital adoption, and airline-side analytics plus dynamic pricing can expand monetization
- Data and index monetization: Freightos Terminal, FBX, and FAX are already industry reference points; index-linked futures on CME and SGX create brand authority and potential monetization flywheels over the cycle.
- Customs and value-added services: Clearit and related services create adjacencies around compliance and payments—areas where digitization reduces errors and delays, improving net revenue per transaction over time
A Left-Field Line in the Sand: Crypto-Mining and Digital Assets?
Freightos is a logistics technology company, not a crypto-miner. Still, investors often cross-check sector risk rubrics given the platform and data DNA. For clarity: Freightos’ filings and releases make no claim that it operates in crypto mining or digital asset custody/trading. The main “digital asset” relevance here is tangential—digitization of freight contracts, dynamic pricing, and index-linked risk management. That said, macro volatility that impacts risk assets (including crypto) can spill over into trade volumes and capital flows, indirectly affecting logistics activity. The company’s own risk disclosures emphasize trade policy, conflict, competition, AI pace of change, and regulatory shifts in logistics—not crypto-specific factors. In short: crypto-mining and digital asset risks are not part of Freightos’ operating profile, though broad risk-on/risk-off regimes can influence investor sentiment and funding conditions across tech micro-caps.
Expert Lens: What Seasoned Operators See
Management commentary underscores a consistent theme—balanced growth with financial discipline, an insistence on neutrality, and a methodical expansion of the product surface to increase ARPU without sacrificing platform trust. The pledge to reach breakeven adjusted EBITDA by end-2026 adds a time-bound milestone for investors to evaluate execution. The path relies on three levers: transaction compounding, SaaS/data upsell, and prudent integration of procurement via Shipsta
Real-World Investor Analogy: The OTA of Freight
Think of freight booking like the early days of online travel agencies: fragmented supply, negotiated rates, and manual processes. OTAs won by aggregating inventory, standardizing search/booking, and layering in supplier-facing tools. Freightos is running a similar playbook—but with the added complexity of multimodal logistics, customs, and B2B procurement. Just as airlines built their own direct channels even as they sold through OTAs, Freightos must navigate a future where large forwarders and carriers digitize directly. Its counter is neutrality, breadth, and workflow depth—qualities that make it less a single storefront and more a booking rail for the industry.
Key Insights
- Freightos delivered 31% revenue growth in Q2 2025 with rising gross margins and narrowing losses; cash and equivalents of $34.1 million support its profitability goal by end-2026
- Transactions hit a record 397,000 in Q2, the 22nd straight record quarter, with GBV up 56% to $317 million—strong proof points for network effects.
- Market cap sits near $163 million, with shares up sharply over 12 months but still volatile, reflecting micro-cap dynamics and execution risk
- The Shipsta deal deepens enterprise procurement reach, expected to add $4–5 million to 2025 revenue, with modest near-term EBITDA drag.
- Competitive pressure remains high across logistics tech; neutrality and integrations are Freightos’ edge against digital forwarders and single-point tools .
Outlook: What to Watch Next
- Carrier and buyer growth: More carriers (particularly airlines and LCL consolidators) and unique buyer users are the oxygen of the marketplace; continued quarter-on-quarter increases will validate liquidity and pricing power
- Solutions mix and margins: Scaling SaaS/data (solutions revenue) sustains high-60s to mid-70s gross margins; watch non-IFRS gross margin trends as a barometer of mix and operational efficiency.
- Adjusted EBITDA trajectory: Quarterly improvements and commentary on cost controls and FX hedges will signal credibility on the 2026 target.
- Procurement penetration: Cross-sell rates and Shipsta contribution versus plan will test the thesis that Freightos can own both spot and contract workflows.
Who Should Consider This Stock?
- Short-term traders: Those comfortable with micro-cap volatility and event-driven moves around earnings, carrier additions, and macro freight headlines may find tradable catalysts as the company reports steady transaction and GBV growth alongside margin progress.
- Long-term investors: Believers in the multi-year digitization of international freight—with patience for a pre-profit platform executing toward 2026 adjusted EBITDA breakeven—may see Freightos as a call option on marketplace scale in a massive, under-digitized market. The thesis hinges on sustained transaction compounding, growing solutions mix, and disciplined cash management through cycle noise.
Now, why does this matter? Because the freight industry is finally standardizing the rails that e-commerce and travel digitized long ago. If Freightos can remain the neutral venue where capacity is priced and booked—and layer in procurement, compliance, and data—it has a shot at becoming the system of choice for a consequential slice of global trade. The next six quarters will tell whether that promise translates into durable profitability and shareholder value.