Freightos launches AI platform as founder fight heads to 16 December AGM

Freightos has put more than 300 forwarders on a new AI-native platform while its founder campaigns to remove the chairman at a 16 December shareholder meeting. The launch lands amid a dispute that pits growth against profitability at the freight booking technology company.

Founder Zvi Schreiber, who started Freightos in 2012 and left the board in February, accuses management of abandoning growth. He wants chairman Udo Lange removed, annual director elections, and an advisory resolution demanding a strategy change.

"The board calls my plan a 'sudden strategic pivot'. The opposite is true," Schreiber told The Loadstar. "For 14 years, Freightos' strategy was to maximise growth, with the transactional platform as the primary long-term opportunity. That's what shareholders invested in."

What does the new platform actually deliver?

The Freightos for Forwarders platform combines carrier rates, quoting, procurement, booking management and market intelligence. AI agents convert unstructured customer enquiries into quotations, applying forwarders' own commercial rules and margins. The system connects to more than 75 carriers and the 7LFreight trucking network. APIs let forwarders integrate Freightos with existing transport management systems and proprietary AI tools.

The refreshed interface and live booking functions work for migrated customers. The AI modules and advanced workflows arrive progressively. Freightos aims to cut quotation turnaround from hours or days to minutes. It declined to project how many additional transactions the launch will generate. Promises of improved quote-to-book conversion remain unquantified.

What are the numbers behind the dispute?

Second-quarter revenue was $7.7m, up 3% year on year. Platform revenue rose 19% to $2.9m. Solutions revenue fell 4% to $4.8m. Schreiber puts the company's net cash at roughly $21m, with no debt. He argues AI will commoditise software, making carrier connectivity and the marketplace network more valuable, and wants Freightos to redirect spending toward the transaction platform and relaunch its marketplace for smaller shippers.

"Freightos doesn't need to raise money to grow. It already raised the capital for growth: that's exactly why we went public, and what shareholders invested in," he said. "Without aggressive platform growth, where is the upside for shareholders?"

How does management answer?

Chief executive Pablo Pinillos rejects the framing of a choice between platform and software. "There is not a real platform-first versus solutions-first idea, because in the end the platform and the solutions reinforce each other," he told The Loadstar. He describes three layers: intelligence, orchestration and network connectivity. Better software and automation should generate more bookings, which produce data that improves the platform.

"The expectation is that we are able to get more volumes from a transactions perspective," he said. He expects double-digit revenue growth in future, though guidance will come separately. He gave no timetable for an AI-native launch of shipper products, including the enterprise Procure offering and the smaller-customer marketplace.

On profitability, Pinillos said: "Breakeven is not a strategy, and it's not the finish line." He called the breakeven target a 2023 commitment by previous management, justified by weak investment discipline and a cost base too large for the company's economics. Breakeven would let Freightos fund growth from its own resources.

He defended staggered board elections as continuity, saying annual votes risk destabilising long-term strategy. On management departures, he acknowledged parts of the organisation needed rebuilding. He declined to engage Schreiber directly: "I don't have anything more than respect for what he has built in this company." He added: "What I'm not willing to spend a single second of my time on is debating someone else's opinions."

Why the proxy fight is contentious

Schreiber alleges "blatant vote rigging". The company's proxy statement omits his Proposal 4, the advisory strategy resolution, from its proxy card. Shareholders who vote by proxy on other resolutions will be recorded as voting against Proposal 4. Freightos said legal advice drove the decision; the board argued the resolution's abstract wording and its combination of chairman qualification and strategy questions made it inconsistent with shareholders' rights under law and the articles.

Pinillos said supporting the resolution requires attending the AGM, possibly online. "It could be online or could be physically," he said, adding the company has not defined attendance for the meeting yet.

The AGM on 16 December will settle the leadership question. Whether the integrated platform can deliver double-digit growth without Schreiber's strategy shift remains unproven until Freightos reports quarters beyond the launch.