By Ty Findley, Co-Founder & General Partner
It is no secret that US-Mexico cross-border freight activity is on a historic rise, with Mexico becoming the US’ top trading partner in 2023, (total two-way goods trade came in at $807B, surpassing China) and already this year, trade reached $415B from January through June, the highest total ever recorded for the time period.
Driven by the acceleration of reshoring and nearshoring efforts and an evolving geopolitical landscape that has spurred many companies to seek out Mexico (over China) as an attractive and geographically strategic place to build new and expand existing manufacturing facilities, it is clear that Mexico’s manufacturing might will only continue to grow in the foreseeable future, with US-Mexico commercial activity becoming increasingly important for both countries. This is also highlighted by June data outlining that border town Laredo, TX was ranked as the top U.S. trade gateway among the nation’s 450 airports, seaports and border crossings, making it the 15th consecutive month the Laredo border crossing was the country’s number one international commercial trade port.
To keep pace with this growth in trade and the associated movement of products across the US-Mexico border, the technology to enable this commerce must advance as well to ensure efficient, reliable, affordable, and secure cross-border transportation and logistics. Enter Cargado, a startup building tech for the freight industry by freight experts, with a vision to make cross-border freight interconnected, dependable, and transparent. Cargado is the first collaborative platform for cross-border logistics, sophisticating how shippers, brokers and carriers get their loads and trucks covered. Key to success in the freight industry – especially when it comes to US-Mexico freight – is collaboration, and Cargado facilitates seamless engagement across trucking companies, customs brokers, facilities, customs agents, and inspections. Cross-border freight is incredibly complex (see CEO Matt Silver’s blog “Cross Border Complexity” where he outlines the components involved) taking a lot of people and process to get freight across the border, and Cargado’s goal is for all stakeholders to collaborate within the Cargado platform – from start to finish.
Cargado co-founders Matt Silver (ex-Coyote Logistics, founder of logistics startup Forager which sold to Arrive Logistics in 2022) and Rylan Hawkins (early employee at Convoy who went on to lead Convoy for Brokers) bring an incredibly differentiated and formidable blend of deep freight industry expertise (with nearly 30 years of freight experience combined), cross-border insight, and technical prowess to tackling this complex problem in a massive market. In building the company and product, they have taken a true “boots on the ground” approach to understanding customer pain points and designing solutions to meet the exact needs they hear articulated during face to face meetings in Laredo, TX, Monterrey, MX, and numerous other border town visits. They fully appreciate the nuances involved in creating a technology platform specifically for cross-border freight, build world-class and customer-oriented product at a maniacal pace, and continually refine how their solution improves operations and outcomes for shippers, brokers, and carriers.
Co-founders CEO Matt Silver and CTO Rylan Hawkins (center) with the full Cargado team; Rylan walks the yard in Laredo, TX
Since launching Cargado in April with an invite-only load board for freight moving into and out of Mexico, Cargado has secured more than 50 logistics customers (including premier brokers, 3PLs, and freight forwarders) who are able to post freight and get bids from nearly 300 US-based trucking companies representing 44,000 trucks and 130,000 trailers of various applications. Cargado’s early customers include 23 of the top brokerages in the industry as well as brokerages who are using Cargado to move their very first Mexico loads. The company’s early traction, along with its compelling business model in a growing market, helped Cargado raise a $6.8M seed round led by Primary Venture Partners last spring. That round followed Cargado’s $3M pre-seed round that Ironspring Ventures was proud to lead (announced in January). The point of all of this, Cargado moves fast and the truck is always barreling down the highway to support their customers!
With continued momentum behind the nearshoring movement (see our Ironspring Ventures Blueprint research “Nearshoring: A Shift in LATAM Transport & Logistics”), Cargado is poised to have a consequential impact in the $779B US-Mexico cross-border freight market, paving the way for more commerce to take place and more goods to flow between the two countries. We expect the market will embrace Cargado as a powerful solution to improve access and enhance operations in managing logistics between the US and Mexico and are excited to back this high horsepower team who “dream about Mexico freight all day long” as they expand the platform and extend its reach.
Visit the Cargado website: www.cargado.com
Read about Cargado in FreightWaves
