Amazon.com Inc. founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has led a $15 million funding round in the British digital freight forwarding and supply chain finance startup Beacon Technologies Ltd.

Freight forwarding is a trillion-dollar global industry, and Beacon wants to act as the booking agent between importers and exporters while providing trade logistics and finance services, Sky News reported today.

Beacon also acts as a supply chain finance provider that offers real-time data of cargo deliveries, along with a marketplace view of international shipping costs.

Founded in 2018 and based in London, Beacon has some pretty heavyweight backers already, including former Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Travis Kalanick, as well as executives from Amazon and Google LLC. Chief Technology Officer Pierre Martin previously served as head of software engineering for Amazon’s package and freight transport technology.

Sky News said the backing of Bezos (pictured) is a major boost for a company that aims to become a global leader in logistics and trade finance. Beacon, which provides logistics services for the global air, ocean and truck freight industries, said it will use the funds raised in the Series A round to invest in new hires, technology and market expansion.

“With digitalization accelerating globally as a result of COVID-19, we believe the future of the traditional freight forwarder is more precarious than ever,” Beacon CEO Fraser Robinson said in a statement.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE that given Bezos’ track record with investments, today’s funding round warrants plenty of attention.

“Freight forwarding is a key but arcanely managed industry on which the world‘s supply chains depend on,” Mueller said. “Like all areas of business automation, the current best practices are challenged and will be replaced by new best practices that take care of the new infinite computing capabilities of the internet, big data, cheap computer and most important AI. Beacon is using these technologies, now it has to convince the industry to adopt them, which likely will happen sooner than later.”

Bezos owns a 12% stake in Amazon, which is in regular competition with tech giants such as Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. for the title of the world’s most valuable public company.

Photo: Steve Sorensen Networth/Flickr