Startup Cargado Unveils Load Board for US-Mexico Freight
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With the nearshoring of manufacturing and the growth of U.S.-Mexico trade raising demand for cross-border trucking, a logistics technology startup has set out to simplify freight moves into and out of Mexico.
Cargado, a new venture co-founded by CEO Matt Silver and Chief Technology Officer Rylan Hawkins, has established an invite-only load board aimed at making cross-border freight more connected, dependable and transparent.
The startup firm, which quietly launched its load board on April 1, publicly announced the product on Sept. 23 with more than 50 logistics customers actively using the platform.
Shipments that cross the border from Mexico into the United States typically involve numerous transportation and logistics providers, including a U.S. carrier, a Mexican carrier, a transfer carrier, potentially a transload facility and customs brokers in both countries.
“It’s just super complex,” Silver said. “They all have to be able to communicate and collaborate to get the job done, and right now it happens across a bunch of different systems completely unrelated to each other. We’re working to help consolidate and streamline all of that, starting with a load board.”
CEO Matt Silver and CTO Rylan Hawkins. (Cargado)
Freight brokers, freight forwarders and third-party logistics providers using Cargado’s load board can post both spot freight and consistent freight lanes from the United States and Canada to Mexico and vice versa.
Cargado’s carrier network currently consists of about 300 U.S.-based trucking companies operating 44,000 trucks and 130,000 trailers, including dry vans, reefers, flatbeds and specialized trailers.
The majority of these carriers are certified as low security risks under the voluntary Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program or have partner carriers in Mexico who are certified with C-TPAT or Mexico’s version of the program.
READ MORE: Nearshoring Raises Cargo Theft Concerns
Silver emphasized the importance of trust in the freight market, which has experienced an increase in fraud, cargo theft and double brokering in recent years.
“We talked to a lot of brokers, and a lot of them said the No. 1 thing they were concerned about was fraud,” Silver said. “They wanted to know we were committed to keeping things safe and secure.”
To weed out bad actors, Cargado’s load board is invitation only. The company relies on referrals and personally meets with the owners or senior management of trucking businesses before granting them access to the platform.
“The key is meeting with them in person,” Silver said. “We’ve been very selective.”
READ MORE: Nearshoring Trend Drives More Border Growth
Cargado charges $500 per user per month to post freight on the load board, but the platform is free for cross-border carriers.
Although the load board is invite-only, 3PLs interested in using the platform and carriers that actively service Mexico can join Cargado’s wait list at cargado.com to begin the vetting and onboarding process.
Today, Cargado is bringing the freight negotiation process online with its load board, but Silver said the company also intends to help customers streamline freight execution and dedicated capacity in the future.
Moving forward, the company plans to integrate with transportation management systems to enable brokers to more seamlessly manage cross-border freight.
Early Cargado promo emphasizes the exclusivity of the new cross-border load board as a safeguard against fraud. (Cargado)
Since forming in October 2023, Cargado has raised nearly $10 million from investors that include Primary Venture Partners, Ironspring Ventures, Zenda Capital, Wischoff Ventures and RyderVentures.
Before launching Cargado, Silver in 2018 founded Forager, a logistics and technology firm focused on cross-border freight. That business was acquired in 2022 by Arrive Logistics, which ranks No. 36 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.
Prior to that, Silver spent nearly a decade at Coyote Logistics, which was acquired by UPS in 2015 and then sold to RXO earlier this month.
UPS ranks No. 1 on the TT100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 4 on the TT100 logistics list. Coyote and RXO ranked Nos. 4 and 7 on the freight brokerage sector list, respectively, before the acquisition closed.
Hawkins, Cargado’s chief technology officer, previously led teams at digital freight brokerage Convoy, which shut down in 2023 but was acquired and relaunched by freight forwarder and logistics technology firm Flexport earlier this year.
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