According to www.aircargonews.net, Munich-headquartered AI startup 5U AI has secured $3.2 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate development and deployment of its digital workforce platform for freight forwarders across Europe.
Funding and strategic direction
The $3.2 million pre-seed round was led by London-based Emerge Capital and will directly support product development and the expansion of 5U AI’s European go-to-market programme. Founded in 2025, the company emerged from the Technical University of Munich and is co-led by Yagiz Abik, CEO, and Fehmi Şener, CTO — both graduates of the university. The startup is backed by senior logistics executives with prior leadership experience at DHL, GEODIS, DSV, Maersk, and CEVA Logistics.
AI workers for operational freight tasks
Unlike generic chatbots or task-specific automation tools, 5U AI’s platform deploys multi-agent AI trained explicitly for logistics workflows — including handling complex exceptions, manual decision points, and cross-modal coordination across air, sea, and road freight. Its AI workers perform end-to-end operational tasks such as quotation generation, booking management, shipment tracking, invoice reconciliation, data entry, and routine administration. Crucially, each AI worker captures the reasoning behind every decision it makes — enabling teams to build institutional knowledge rather than merely offload isolated tasks.
“Freight forwarding is full of decisions that are still trapped in inboxes, spreadsheets, and people’s heads. We are not building another chatbot that answers questions and disappears, we are building AI workers that understand freight operations, carry out the work, and capture the reasoning behind every decision, so teams can scale their knowledge as well as their capacity.” — Yagiz Abik, CEO of 5U AI
Live deployments and scaling plans
The technology is already live with forwarders and carriers across Europe. One confirmed implementation is with TCI International Logistics, which deploys 5U AI’s agents across both air and ocean freight operations. As part of its growth trajectory, the company plans to expand its workforce across product, engineering, operations, commercial, and customer-facing functions. This hiring push aligns with its stated goal to deepen integration within existing freight systems — avoiding rip-and-replace requirements while delivering measurable improvements in administrative efficiency and decision velocity.
“AI is one of the most exciting developments logistics has seen for a generation, but its value will depend on people who understand the industry and want to build practical tools that solve real operational problems. We are actively looking for people who want to join us at this early stage and help shape the next chapter of freight forwarding.” — Yagiz Abik, CEO of 5U AI
Industry context and differentiation
The funding round arrives amid accelerating adoption of agentic AI in global logistics: IAI and Merlin recently signed an MoU on AI-powered autonomy for freighter operations (24 July 2026), while Sun PhuQuoc Airways adopted SmartKargo’s cloud-native cargo platform on the same day. Unlike legacy RPA or single-purpose AI tools, 5U AI’s architecture is purpose-built for the heterogeneity of freight documentation, regulatory variance across jurisdictions, and high-frequency exception handling inherent to forwarder workflows. Its current focus remains firmly on European freight ecosystems — a market where manual processes still dominate over 60% of quotation and booking cycles, according to industry benchmarks cited by independent supply chain analysts.
Source: Air Cargo News
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
