Logistics technology platform provider Freightos Ltd. has raised a $44.4 million investment round led by the financial services firm Singapore Exchange and plans to use the new capital to scale up its online international freight marketplace and to develop new financial instruments to improve transparency in shipping, the company said today.

Founded in 2012, Hong Kong-based Freightos makes a marketplace that supports price comparison, instant booking, online shipment management, tracking, and communication, the firm says. In 2017, the company launched a freight rate calculator that gives retailers, exporters, distributors, and wholesalers more visibility of shipping rates in a market constrained by the increasing use of spot quotes and rising rate volatility.

The new funding round was led by Singapore-based Singapore Exchange (SGX) and joined by General Electric Ventures, ICV, Aleph, and others. It follows a $25 million investment round in 2017 led by GE Ventures, and brings the firm to a total investment of $94.4 million.

In a statement, SGX said it plans to work with Freightos to explore the development of financial instruments to introduce the transparency, agility, and risk-mitigation that other industries already enjoy. That effort will begin with enhancements to the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX), a container freight index driven by Freightos' global rate database that operates in collaboration with the Baltic Exchange, part of the SGX group, the parters said.

"Freightos is at the forefront of a new wave of solutions for price discovery and digital marketplaces in global freight - an industry at the heart of the global economy," Michael Syn, head of derivatives at SGX, said in a statement. "SGX is excited by the potential to develop risk management tools and services, and build on Singapore's unique position in the trade ecosystem, to bridge the physical and financial markets."