1. Young entrants bringing change. A growing number of young firms are establishing in the logistics space, which has traditionally been perceived as an innovation laggard given its analog processes, high asset intensity, and low margins. Of the 331 new players that have come into long-distance logistics since 2010, founding activity is the most significant in North America (38%), Europe (30%), and Asia (24%).

2. Platform applications enjoying strong momentum. Platform-based solutions offering digital marketplaces for brokering logistics services make up 75% of the top 20 most funded startups in the field. These firms, also known as ‘digital freight forwarders’, often also offer full-service solutions to arrange the entire transport journey from A to B. In response to the competitive pressure, established logistics players have also entered the platform space, with prominent actions including DHL’s digital freight platform, or Maersk’s Twill platform. The interest in platform-based solutions can also be evidenced by the funding for top startups, which is noticeably bigger than that in the second field of interest: autonomous trucking.

3. A tale of two continents. The figure below shows a comparison of aggregated financing sums in the periods of 2010-2014 and 2015-2020. Aside from a general uptick, the investment dynamics in Asia are particularly notable as the burgeoning funding totals are outpacing other regions, and closing the gap to their North American counterparts.

About this briefing:

This briefing is a part of a delphai collaboration with Tagesspiegel Background, in which delphai’s artificial intelligence tools are used to provide Background with data insights on the technologies, companies, and applications that drive global innovation.

The data and analyses you see here are a summary of what delphai provided to Tagesspiegel Background for its article Logistics platforms attract billions.

About delphai:

delphai is a market intelligence software that uses AI for the automatic analysis of market and technology developments. The software is used by companies to create insights that help them seize opportunities, manage risks, and make better decisions.

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