A quiet revolution in freight logistics just secured fresh fuel. A startup building digital coworkers, not just software tools, has locked down $3.2 million in pre-seed capital to reshape how forwarders handle the daily avalanche of operational decisions across air, sea, and road transport.
The investment lands at a moment when logistics providers face mounting pressure to do more with less. Manual processes still dominate quoting, booking, tracking, and invoice reconciliation. 5U AI aims to change that calculus by deploying AI Workers that execute complex workflows while preserving the rationale behind every move.
London-based Emerge Capital led the funding round. The fresh capital will accelerate product development and drive the company’s expansion across European markets. According to the firm’s leadership, the platform plugs directly into existing freight systems rather than demanding a rip-and-replace overhaul.
Each AI Worker tackles a range of tasks: generating quotes, managing bookings, monitoring shipments, reconciling invoices, handling data entry, and clearing routine administrative bottlenecks. Behind the scenes, a proprietary Decision Layer logs how every conclusion was reached. Operations teams gain full visibility into what happened, why it happened, and how similar judgments might improve over time.
Yagiz Abik, Chief Executive Officer, framed the mission bluntly. Freight forwarding decisions remain trapped in inboxes, spreadsheets, and individual memory. The company rejects the shallow chatbot model entirely. Instead, it builds AI Workers that grasp freight operations, perform the actual labor, and capture institutional knowledge so teams scale wisdom alongside throughput.
The technology already runs inside forwarders and carriers across Europe. TCI International Logistics uses the AI Workers across both air and ocean freight divisions. Early traction has prompted a hiring push spanning product, engineering, operations, commercial, and customer-facing roles.
Founded in 2025 by Technical University of Munich graduates Yagiz Abik and Fehmi Şener, the startup carries backing from senior logistics veterans: former leaders from DHL, GEODIS, DSV, Maersk, and Ceva Logistics. Their combined expertise signals a bet on practical AI built by industry insiders who understand the messy realities of freight operations.
The company targets forwarders, carriers, and third-party logistics providers hungry to slash manual administration, sharpen decision-making, and expand customer service capacity, all without abandoning the systems they already run.
