Houlihan Lokey Advises InstaFreight

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that InstaFreight, one of Europe's fastest growing log-tech startups, has successfully closed its Series B funding round of $40 million, led by Heliad (ETR:HPBK) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). All previous investors of InstaFreight have also participated in the new financing round.

InstaFreight is a leading digital logistics company for overland transport in Europe. Founded in 2016, the company employs more than 200 people across Europe and carries out several thousand transports per week. InstaFreight combines the transport capacity of more than 25,000 carriers in one digital platform and gives shippers access to this capacity. Through digital innovations, the Berlin-based scaleup creates transparency and efficiency within the transport process. For shippers, InstaFreight handles transports reliably and without complications. By digitising the transport process, shippers benefit from efficient processes that save time and money and from a supply chain that is always visible. With InstaFreight, carriers can meet the digital needs of shippers, optimise their capacity utilisation, and are paid faster at attractive freight rates.

The current situation in the logistics industry, which is additionally stressed by the war in Ukraine, shows that stable supply chains cannot be taken for granted. Right now, transport prices are rising and capacities are becoming scarce, and yet there are 30% empty runs in European overland transport. With more than 770,000 transport companies, the market is very fragmented. Through platform technology, InstaFreight makes this transport capacity more accessible to companies looking for reliable transport partners and designs the companies' supply chain to be even more efficient and sustainable.

Heliad is a listed investment company with a mission to empower both entrepreneurs and investors. The company invests in market-leading companies across various verticals and regions to power their next phase of growth.

The European Guarantee Fund (EGF) was set up by the EIB Group with contributions from 22 EU Member States to shield companies suffering from the COVID-19 crisis. Using nearly €25 billion in guarantees, the EGF allows the EIB and its subsidiary, the European Investment Fund (EIF), to quickly make loans, guarantees, asset-backed securities, equity, and other financial instruments available, mostly to small and medium-sized enterprises. The EGF is part of the EU's recovery package aiming to provide a total of €540 billion to boost the worst-hit parts of the EU economy.

With this new investment from Heliad and the EIB, InstaFreight will make supply chains that were strained by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine more resilient. Using its digital business model, InstaFreight is making more capacity available and will handle land transport more efficiently. The commitment of the investors and the current events in logistics and beyond show the outstanding potential that lies in an efficient and sustainable shaping of European land transport. With its digital solutions, InstaFreight offers efficient and digital transport services as well as transport management solutions, providing holistic digital logistics concepts for industry and trade that are unique in Europe in terms of their simplicity and transparency.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to InstaFreight and assisted the management, founders, and shareholders mainly in marketing document preparation, due diligence setup, and investor approach while acting as sparring partner throughout the transaction process.