Berlin-based Conlio announced a €6.4 million ($7.1 million) funding round on Tuesday for software that verifies road freight documents before forwarders pay carriers and invoice customers. Piton Capital led the round.
Conlio calls that check one of logistics’ most manual processes and says it slows payments and ties up working capital for forwarders and the carriers they hire. The round comes as weakness in European freight markets led Trimble this week to lower its full-year growth forecast.
Haufe Group Ventures joined the round, along with WaVe-X, WALTER GROUP’s venture arm, and F-LOG Ventures, FIEGE’s venture fund. Existing investors System.One, Puzzle Ventures, Booom Ventures, and Yellow also took part. Conlio works with midsize and enterprise road freight forwarders in Germany, the U.K., Spain, and Denmark.
Founder and CEO Claudio Consul said context is what has made the check hard to automate.
“Freight is one of the world’s largest industries, and digitalization has transformed large parts of it. But the industry is full of edge cases and decisions that depend on context, which has made true end-to-end automation difficult with traditional software. AI changes that,” Consul said in the release.
How forwarders check freight paperwork
European road freight runs on the CMR consignment note. Under the 1956 CMR Convention, the note confirms the contract of carriage and is made out in three original copies signed by the sender and the carrier.
Before a forwarder pays a carrier or bills a customer, it checks that the CMR, the proof of delivery, and the carrier’s invoice are complete and correct, according to Conlio. Those documents arrive in different formats and languages, often carry handwritten notes, and are checked against rules that vary by customer, route, and geography.
A single CMR can carry up to four dates, recording when it was issued, when the goods were collected, when they were delivered, and other events in transit. Conlio’s software works out which event each date refers to, then checks it against that shipment’s requirements.
What Conlio claims for forwarders
Conlio says it can automate more than 90% of freight document checks. By the company’s estimate, the software can raise a forwarder’s EBIT by up to 30%, or more than €1 million a year for a forwarder with €100 million in revenue.
But the release does not name customers, disclose revenue, or say how those figures were measured. It also cites a €430 billion European road freight market, a 2025 forecast from Transport Intelligence. The firm’s European Road Freight Transport 2026 report puts the 2025 figure at €440.4 billion and projects 1.6% growth this year.
What drew Piton and WaVe-X
Piton Capital investor Michael Macklin pointed to the team’s grasp of the problem.
“What we liked most about Conlio and Claudio was that they know the problem inside out, from the perspective of their customers, while also having the technologist’s insight on how it can be done differently,” Macklin said.
Consul was previously senior vice president of product at sennder, a Berlin digital freight forwarder valued at more than $1 billion in 2021. The company said he helped build sennder’s product organization as it grew from 200 to more than 1,000 employees.
Thomas Muscher, managing director at WaVe-X, said AI “is moving from pilot projects into the core processes of freight forwarding,” and that the finance back office is one of the areas “where the impact is most immediate.”
Conlio plans to use the money to build out its logistics technology team and expand across Europe.
“Our long-term ambition is to change how money moves across supply chains, and verified freight documents are where this begins,” Consul said.
Why it matters: Two logistics groups’ venture arms now back the idea that forwarders can hand most document checks to software and invoice customers faster. Until forwarders using it report results, the 90% automation rate and the EBIT gains are Conlio’s own estimates.
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