WiseTech Global acquisitions continue as it bags SmartFreight

Expansion-minded WiseTech Global has announced its second acquisition in less than three days after buying Australia-based parcel shipping and less than truckload (LTL) software provider SmartFreight.
Earlier this week, WiseTech Global continued its worldwide buying spree with the acquisition of LSI Sigma Software (DataFreight), a provider of Customs, freight forwarding and warehouse management software.
Headquartered in Sydney, SmartFreight offers multi-carrier shipping software solutions to over 3,300 customers across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and Asia. In Australia alone, SmartFreight processes over 50m parcels annually.
Said WiseTech: "Its solutions address traditional bricks and mortar, B2C and B2B customers across all industries including organisations such as 3M, Mazda, Hyundai, Seiko, Epson and Pandora Jewellery, as well as transport and logistics providers such as DHL, Australia Post Group, Parcelforce, TNT, Toll Group, Aramax and Royal Mail." 
WiseTech Global’s founder and chief executive, Richard White, said: “As e-commerce continues its rapid exponential growth, the importance of omni-channel parcel and LTL shipping for customers, and the logistics industry globally, will increase by an order of magnitude.
"We value the parcel logistics and technical expertise within the SmartFreight teams and their extensive coverage of parcel and LTL carriers and rates, with electronic connections to over 650 carriers, in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK and South Africa.
White continued: "These adjacent markets complement those covered by our other WiseTech businesses – parcel shipping TMS provider, Pierbridge, and specialist LTL TMS provider, SaaS Transportation, while our Gartner-rated specialist WMS, Microlistics, can beneficially partner with SmartFreight for e-commerce fulfilment domestically in these crossover geographies.
“Importantly, bringing SmartFreight into the WiseTech group will also accelerate the global expansion of our next-generation CargoWise One e-commerce offering for both international and domestic e-commerce fulfilments.
"This innovative solution is in pilot with a major air-freight forwarder and will soon be launched globally for country-of-origin depot functionality – a great fit with SmartFreight capabilities.”
SmartFreight’s managing director, Ken Aitken, said: “The days of global supply chain solutions working in regional silos are over and the exponential growth in international e-commerce makes the need for total supply chain visibility and transparency a necessity for our customers.
Joining the WiseTech Global group allows us to plug our 21 years of experience in first and last mile delivery into their leading integrated global platform, which is being continually enhanced and expanded. This is a great opportunity for us to improve and scale up our shipping solutions and grow in key markets.”

Read more airfreight digitisation, Express and e-commerce logistics news