Osborne Clarke advised the Berlin-based airfreight startup cargo.one on a Series A financing round of EUR 16 million. With the fresh capital the startup wants to finance its expansion to North America and Asia. In addition, cargo.one wants to create 70 new jobs this year, which would triple the number of employees, and further win more airlines as partners.
The Osborne Clarke team led by Robin Eyben (lead) consisted of Maximilian Vocke, Dana Alpar (both corporate / venture capital), Felix Hilgert (IP / IT law), Robert Rentsch and Kamissa Kruse (both employment).
The financing round is led by Index Ventures based in London and San Francisco. Further investors are Next47 and the former investors Creandum, Point Nine Capital and Lufthansa Cargo. Former Skyscanner CPO Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas also joined the Berlin startup.
cargo.one is following the trend that airlines, which have been affected by the sharp drop in passenger traffic in the corona crisis, are increasingly dependent on sales from freight traffic. In addition to the growth potential, the startup also sees a need for digitization processes in order to reduce transaction costs and use freight capacities more efficiently.
The platform offers real-time visibility of the available airfreight resources across airlines and routes, with the aim of replacing time-consuming processing via telephone and e-mail traffic for the users (mostly freight forwarding offices). Currently, 12 airlines use the cargo.one platform to book freight shipments, including Lufthansa, All Nippon Airways, Finnair, Etihad, AirBridgeCargo and TAP Air Portugal.
About Osborne Clarke
Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 1,800 employees at 26 locations worldwide, including 150 lawyers in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich. With the claim "Helping you succeed in tomorrow's world", extensive industry knowledge through networking and outstanding expertise in the digital transformation of business models, Osborne Clarke advises and represents companies and entrepreneurs in all practical business law issues - excellent, inspiring and appreciative, both externally and internally.