Automation startup Freight Hero launched Monday with backing from both logistics and technology experts looking to address long-standing challenges of traditional brokerage models.
Dynamo Ventures, co-founded by freight brokerage expert Ted Alling and other industry leaders, has partnered with artificial intelligence thought leader Andrew Ng’s AI Fund to work toward correctly balancing the human and technology interactions that power transportation providers.
“We believe Freight Hero’s model is the best approach to deliver this efficiency and allow brokers to spend time with customers and deepen carrier relationships,” said Alling in the release.
In an interview with FreightWaves, CEO André Luis Martins Filho spoke about his journey founding Freight Hero.
At the core of Martins Filho’s passion for technology lies a deep fascination with the potential of AI. Coming from a strong engineering and operations background from past entrepreneurial endeavors optimizing logistics in Brazil, he has developed a nuanced understanding of industry complexities and inefficiencies.
“I have never seen a role like a cradle-to-grave broker in any other industry – a person who is expected to do both sales and operations at the same time while being paid commissions,” he said. “That person has to do a lot of operations behind the scenes to make sure that he earns that commission as well, and it’s fascinating to see how they manage those roles.”
Martins Filho sees the freight brokerage industry as ripe for innovation, with numerous manual processes and exceptions to manage that could be streamlined through the strategic deployment of AI and other technology.
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The foundation of Martins Filho’s vision is the development of a hybrid model of brokering that integrates AI automation with human oversight and intervention. The underlying premise is to leverage the capabilities of AI agents to handle the more routine and repetitive tasks, such as ETA checks, tracking and fraud detection.
“The idea with Freight Hero is to automate the tasks that can be automated and whenever there is a situation that cannot be automated, Freight Hero will have our own team of experts – we call them Heroes – that will resolve those issues before it even gets back to the broker. So you create this extra layer to the solution which allows us to automate a larger, broader process. This generates a lot more value back to the broker, who can focus on doing the things that make them the commission,” Martins Filho explained.
One of the key factors behind his excitement is the opportunity to partner with Dynamo Ventures and the AI Fund. By tapping into the knowledge and resources of these respected resources, Martins Filho can ensure that Freight Hero’s solutions are not only technologically advanced but also rooted in a comprehensive understanding of today’s industry pain points while addressing the technological advancements of tomorrow.
Martins Filho acknowledges the potential challenge of the traditional mindset and resistance to change that can sometimes permeate the logistics industry, particularly among truck drivers. However, he says he is confident that as AI becomes more universal and its benefits more widely recognized, the industry will adapt to the new technologies.
“The culture shift needs to happen and something that I believe is going to happen regardless, because we’re going in a direction where the brokers are going to be very pressured into improving margins while scaling their operations. Now that we’re entering a new freight cycle, volume is going to go up. There are already large players adopting technology, consolidating a lot of their operations, and that’s going to put everyone under a lot of pressure to make some changes; otherwise they’re just going to get left behind,” he said.
With this new financial backing, Freight Hero is expanding its team, building its product and onboarding clients to collaborate on product design and development.
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The post Freight Hero exits stealth mode with backing from Dynamo and AI Fund appeared first on FreightWaves.
