May 02, 2019
Edenred Capital Partners participates in Fretlink's new 25 million euros funding round
Via its venture capital structure, Edenred Capital Partners, the Edenred Group, the world leader in payment solutions for the working world, is investing in the French start-up Fretlink, specialized in the digitization of road freight transport. Capital Partners is the lead investor of this 25 million euros funding round.
Edenred Capital Partners invests in innovative businesses with high growth potential in areas related to Edenred's activities. The aim is to enhance the Group's ecosystem by initiating valuable synergies with the companies backed.
Fretlink, the thirteenth company backed by Edenred Capital Partners, connects industrial shippers with the largest network of local carriers in Europe, via a new standard for the organization of road freight transportation. Thanks to its innovative technology platform, the start-up is pioneering the sector's transition towards the practices of the future and aims to upgrade the performances of its players via a comprehensive approach, related to the market's real challenges.
As a flow orchestrator, Fretlink’s platform provides recommendations based on the analysis of transportation data, automates operational processes and adopts a comprehensive approach to transportation costs and organizations, enabling European contracting officers to secure, manage and optimize their transport plans, so improving the overall performance of their supply chain.
Fretlink also stands out for its partnering role towards carriers, allowing them to sustain and develop their business by offering them new development opportunities with a facilitated access to the market and to a set of new tools to improve their performance and assert their service quality.
Founded in 2016 in Paris, Fretlink already connects 400 regular shippers, such as P&G and Candia (Sodiaal Group), with 5,000 transportation companies across Europe and achieved 15 million euros in revenue in 2018.
This new funding round, after an initial seed round in 2016 followed by a Series A round in April 2017, will allow Fretlink to finance its international development and enhance its solution, primarily by creating a service platform aimed at providing European carriers with a range of commercial benefits and services that will enable them to sustain and develop their business. The purchase of trucks, equipment and accessories at reduced prices, optimization of fuel cost management, and access to services making life easier for drivers are just some of the benefits that this platform will offer.
Edenred, a world player in the Fleet & Mobility field
Edenred is one of the world leaders in the Fleet & Mobility market with more than 35 solutions deployed in 20 countries. In particular, the Group has developed extensive expertise in fuel cards, with more than 20 years' experience in Latin America and is accelerating its development in Europe and Asia.
This new investment bolsters Edenred's already extensive ecosystem in the field of road transport in Europe with its subsidiary UTA, #2 Europe-wide player in multi-brand fuel cards, along with toll and maintenance solutions. It will also enable the Group to fine-tune its expertise in this rapidly changing sector.
"A major player in the Fleet & Mobility market in Europe and around the world, Edenred, via its venture capital structure, Edenred Capital Partners, is delighted to be contributing to the development of Fretlink, a promising company that has set up an efficient platform to streamline the high-potential European freight transport market and is helping to invent the Fleet & Mobility solutions of the future," declared Philippe Dufour, Executive Vice President, Alternative Investments for Edenred.
"With the launch of our service platform, our priority is to help European regional carriers develop and sustain their business, by giving them access to appropriate and lucrative flows, as well as a range of services under advantageous conditions. Models and practices are undergoing radical transformation and we have always been convinced that it is by collaborating with the sector's experts that we will manage to initiate change. We are delighted today to see Edenred Capital Partners join the Fretlink adventure to help build the road transport sector of the future," enthused Paul Guillemin, co-founder of Fretlink.
