In cross-border logistics, inefficiency is not a rounding error; it is the system. Empty return trips, fragmented carrier networks, opaque pricing, and poor data flow quietly drain margins across Europe–Africa trade corridors. For decades, these inefficiencies were accepted as structural realities. CloudFret was built to challenge that assumption.
Founded in 2021 by Driss Jabar, CloudFret is a Moroccan freight technology company using artificial intelligence to optimize freight flows across the Mediterranean, with a particular focus on Europe–Africa trade. Rather than operating as a traditional freight broker, CloudFret positions itself as infrastructure, a data-driven coordination layer that aligns shippers, carriers, and routes into a more efficient system.
This distinction matters.
The Problem: Structural Waste in Cross-Border Freight
Freight logistics between Europe and Africa is both vital and inefficient. Despite high trade volumes, the market is plagued by:
- Empty or underutilized return trips
- Manual matching between shippers and carriers
- Fragmented carrier bases, especially in North Africa
- Poor visibility across borders, customs processes, and routes
These inefficiencies increase costs for shippers, suppress margins for carriers, and slow regional trade. For African operators, the problem is amplified by limited access to modern freight tech platforms built for their realities.
CloudFret’s insight was simple but powerful: optimize the flow, not just the transaction.
The Solution: AI as a Freight Coordination Engine
CloudFret’s platform uses AI-driven algorithms to match freight demand with carrier capacity across routes, borders, and time windows. By analyzing shipment data, carrier availability, route history, and utilization patterns, the system:
- Reduces empty runs
- Improves fleet utilization
- Optimizes pricing through better matching
- Enables smoother cross-border freight movement
Unlike legacy freight platforms designed for single markets, CloudFret is built for bi-regional complexity; where regulatory, operational, and infrastructural asymmetries are the norm.
The result is predictability, a critical factor for shippers operating across continents.
Founder Perspective: Systems Thinking Over Brokerage
Founder Driss Jabar set out to build a structure: how technology could rewire freight flows rather than sit on top of them.
By designing CloudFret as a platform that learns from movement patterns, the company embeds intelligence into the logistics process itself. This approach reflects a broader shift in global logistics from human-led coordination to algorithmic orchestration.
For Africa-facing trade, this shift is particularly consequential.
Traction & Market Signals
While CloudFret operates in a traditionally opaque sector, several signals point to meaningful early traction:
- Active usage by shippers and carriers across Mediterranean routes
- Demonstrated reduction in empty kilometers for partner fleets
- Growing relevance in Europe–Africa trade corridors, where optimization yields outsized gains
More importantly, CloudFret is building network effects. Each additional carrier, shipment, and route improves the platform’s matching intelligence, strengthening its competitive moat.
Funding & Institutional Validation
CloudFret raised $2.1 million from AfriMobility and Azur Innovation Fund, a strong validation of both its technology and its transcontinental thesis.
These investors are not betting on incremental logistics tools; they are backing freight infrastructure designed for a region where trade growth is inevitable, but efficiency has lagged.
The funding positions CloudFret to:
- Deepen AI capabilities
- Expand carrier networks
- Strengthen cross-border integrations
- Scale into additional Europe–Africa corridors
Competitive Positioning: Where CloudFret Wins
CloudFret sits at the intersection of:
- Freight marketplaces
- Route optimization software
- Cross-border logistics coordination
Its advantage lies in regional focus. Global freight platforms often struggle with Africa-specific operational realities. Local brokers lack the technology to optimize at scale. CloudFret bridges this gap with software built for complexity, not simplicity.
Apart from shippers and carriers, CloudFret makes also attracts:
- Trade facilitators
- Port operators
- Policy stakeholders interested in trade efficiency
Why CloudFret Matters
CloudFret goes beyond improving logistics economics; it is reshaping how Africa plugs into global trade systems.
Efficient freight is a prerequisite for:
- Competitive exports
- Regional integration
- Industrial growth
- Trade resilience
By reducing friction at the logistics layer, CloudFret enables African businesses to compete on speed, cost, and reliability.
Forward View: From Platform to Backbone
As Europe–Africa trade deepens, logistics intelligence will become as important as physical infrastructure. CloudFret is positioning itself early as a backbone system for this next phase of trade.
Built in Morocco. Designed for cross-border complexity. Scaled for regional impact.
CloudFret exemplifies what Building in Africa truly means: Africans engineering systems that move economies forward.
