The selloff didn’t arrive with fireworks. No viral meltdown on the trading floor, no spectacular crash. Just a steady decline in Freightos’ share price, the kind of subdued drop that worries investors because it appears so normal.
After learning that Zvi Schreiber would resign from the company’s board, analysts in New York trading desks gazed at charts that showed the stock declining. In tech companies, changes in leadership occur frequently. However, the timing seemed off. The logistics industry had entered an odd period of self-doubt, and freight technology companies were already under strain.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Company | Freightos |
| Founder | Zvi Schreiber |
| Industry | Global freight forwarding and logistics technology |
| Core Business | Online platform for booking and managing international freight shipments |
| Recent Market Event | Stock decline following leadership changes and investor concerns |
| Technology Shift | AI-driven freight matching, automated pricing, and digital documentation |
| Industry Context | Logistics firms facing automation and AI disruption fears |
| Financial Goal | Targeting adjusted EBITDA breakeven by late 2026 |
| Sector Affected | Freight brokers, shipping platforms, trucking networks |
| Reference | https://www.freightos.com |
Freightos presented a straightforward idea for years. Global freight, an industry based on phone conversations, spreadsheets, and interpersonal connections, might evolve into something more akin to online travel reservations. Compare prices, reserve a container, and click a few buttons.
It made perfect sense in theory. Global logistics is messy in practice. In ports, containers become stuck. Shipping schedules are affected by weather. Documentation related to customs disappears. After midnight, drivers stop taking calls on unknown highways.
Some of those edges can be mitigated by technology. However, the chaos cannot be completely eliminated.
The Freightos story has always included that tension. In a sector known for its opacity, the platform promised transparency. Cargo owners had instant access to price comparisons. Without spending months cultivating relationships, freight forwarders could reach new clients. The idea occasionally seems almost elegant as you watch the system work.
However, investors are now more circumspect. During the freight slowdown that lasted through 2024 and 2025, logistics technology startups—once hailed as the next wave of supply-chain modernization—started reducing staff and expenses. The volume of shipments decreased. Warehouses were full. The cost of freight decreased.
The story abruptly shifted. The discussions turned from “disruption” to “survival.” Add artificial intelligence, the most recent factor shaking the industry.
Wall Street is beginning to believe that AI could automate a lot of the routine tasks that freight brokers have historically completed, such as matching shipments with available trucks, negotiating prices, and handling paperwork. Already, algorithms are able to assess market conditions more quickly than a human juggling phone calls and staring at four monitors. The brokerage layer of logistics may significantly decrease if that spreads.
The tremor was first felt by trucking stocks. Earlier this year, shares of a number of freight companies fell as investors started to factor in the potential for AI-driven logistics platforms to reduce industry margins. The fear, according to some analysts, is overblown.
It’s difficult to imagine the logistics industry operating solely on software when you stand outside a major port like Rotterdam or Long Beach and watch cranes lift containers the size of tiny apartments onto waiting trucks. The physical world is too intricate. Arriving cargo is damaged. Errors in documentation cause shipments to stall. Storms cause ships to reroute.
Someone still has to solve those problems. And rather than being an algorithm, that person is frequently a person with experience.
However, the counterargument does not go away. AI can change a system without completely replacing it. The economics of freight brokerage start to shift if software can automate pricing decisions thousands of times a day or shorten booking processes by minutes.
Margins get smaller. Expectations change. Businesses that are in the middle—too big to control the market but too digital to depend on relationships—may be under the most strain.
For this reason, Freightos has evolved into a sort of symbol in the discourse. The business maintains that bookings are increasing and that it is steadily approaching profitability. Adjusted EBITDA breakeven by the end of 2026 is still its stated objective.
Public markets, however, are impatient. Investors frequently view logistics platforms as software firms, anticipating steady growth and smooth revenue curves. Unfortunately, freight acts more like the weather. Trade cycles, geopolitical tensions, and consumer sentiment all affect demand.
There is a slight discrepancy between those expectations and reality when observing the industry today.
The physical supply chain continues to move forward in the meantime. Pallets with ripped packaging are rewrapped by workers in distribution centers under fluorescent lighting. Concrete floors are hummed by forklifts. Outside loading bays, trucks wait for paperwork.
Goods are still needed to move around the world.
It’s difficult to ignore the contrast between the slick terminology of “AI transition” that is being used in financial markets and that grim physical process. One is conversant in the language of efficiency and algorithms. The other has a subtle diesel fuel and warehouse dust odor. The future of logistics lies somewhere in the middle of those two realities.
And that is the unanswered question surrounding the Freightos sale. Global logistics will undoubtedly endure. Customers are not going to stop purchasing goods that are transported across international borders. Who will be in charge of the digital layer that coordinates those movements is the deeper question.
Freightos and other platforms hope it will be them. Relationships and scale are still important, according to traditional freight brokers. In the meantime, a new generation of AI-powered instruments is silently picking up on the trends in international trade.
There’s a sense that the logistics sector isn’t imploding as this develops. It is rearranging itself. Additionally, markets are starting to raise awkward questions as they perceive that change before it fully materializes.
