Australian transport and logistics company elite logistics australia has agreed to acquire FreightExchange, a Sydney startup that makes digital freight management software, Prime Mover Magazine reported on October 14, 2026.
Neither company disclosed the price or other financial terms. The announcement did not say when the deal is expected to complete.
FreightExchange will keep operating with its current team, and Cate Hull, who founded the company in 2014, will stay on as chief executive. "I'm proud of the business the FreightExchange team has built, and we're excited about starting a new chapter with Elite," Hull said.
What FreightExchange built
Hull and co-founder Martyn Hann started FreightExchange in 2014 to cut waste in road freight. Hull, who had a background in big data and enterprise automation, came up with the idea while working in the port city of Fremantle, after talking to port managers and freight operators about how much truck space went unused.
The first product was a marketplace. Carriers listed spare capacity on particular routes, including discounted last-minute space, and shippers entered the weight, dimensions and route of a load to get a price and transit time. FreightExchange vetted carriers' licences and insurance and paid them once delivery was proven. The founders interviewed more than 150 potential customers before building it, and the company went through the muru-D accelerator in 2015.
By mid-2017 Hull told Startup Daily that the company had shipped for almost 3,000 customers, signed up more than 1,000 carriers, integrated with Toll, TNT and Allied Express, and had partnership agreements with Transport for NSW and Shell. Selling to logistics companies first had proved too slow, so the startup moved to small businesses before working its way back towards enterprise customers.
Today FreightExchange describes itself as freight management and transport management software for the more complex end of the market: B2B and multi-modal shipments rather than simple parcels. Its website says 1,417 industrial companies use the platform and lists features such as AI-based freight invoice auditing, carrier rate management and a NetSuite plugin. Earth-moving equipment maker Komatsu is among the customers it names.
“I'm proud of the business the FreightExchange team has built, and we're excited about starting a new chapter with Elite.”
Grants, awards and a push abroad
FreightExchange has not announced any large venture rounds. In 2020 it received an A$400,000 grant under the federal government's Boosting Female Founders Initiative to build a SaaS platform that could plug into carriers' transport systems quickly, and the company matched that money with its own, Forbes Australia reported in 2024.
The pandemic forced it to pull back from operations in Asia, where the grant-funded platform had been meant to support growth in Hong Kong, but domestic demand rose as businesses looked for ways to run warehouses and shipping with fewer people. Forbes reported that the company was expanding into US land freight and had launched a CO2 reporting feature so customers could measure the emissions from their shipments.
In October 2025 the company switched to a new subscription model that lets customers combine FreightExchange's brokered carrier rates with their own carrier accounts in one system. Two of its engineers were named finalists in the 2025 Australian Logistics Council Awards, and the company said in that announcement that enterprise customer acquisition had grown 40% year on year.
Why elite logistics australia is buying
elite logistics australia runs 3PL warehousing around the country and its own fleet of transport vehicles, and works mainly for retail, fast-moving consumer goods and light industrial clients. Its website promotes in-house warehouse management and freight management technology as part of the service.
The company said FreightExchange's platform improves efficiency, visibility and access to freight opportunities for shippers, and that it fits with its technology-led approach to logistics. It called the purchase a significant investment in its technology and innovation strategy.
Combining the two businesses should let it reach more customers, speed up product development and improve service across the supply chain, the company said. It did not say whether the FreightExchange brand will change.
What happens next
With the team and chief executive staying, FreightExchange is set to keep running as a distinct business inside a larger operator, rather than being folded straight into the buyer. For a startup whose original goal, as Hull told Forbes, was to take 30% of trucks off the road by filling empty space, the new owner gives it direct access to a fleet and a warehouse network.
Hull has called freight an old-fashioned industry, and told Forbes there are about 40,000 transport companies in Australia and 800,000 in the US. The announcement did not say whether the new owner will back the US expansion she described in 2024, or how the platform will be offered to shippers outside elite logistics australia's own customer base.
