Investor Puts $30 Million into INTTRA

INTTRA, the carrier-owned portal for ocean-freight bookings, is getting a fresh capital infusion that will enable it to develop new electronic commerce services for new markets.

ABS Capital Partners, a capital fund that specializes in later-stage growth companies, has invested $30 million in INTTRA and is taking a majority stake in it.

INTTRA will use these funds to further develop its platform for electronic invoicing and to roll out a new product that will enable shippers to make bookings and instructions with non-vessel-operating common carriers.

“ABS Capital’s investment will give us the financial strength to accelerate our business plans and operations,” said INTTRA CEO Ken Bloom.

He said INTTRA’s search for new investment was started by its board more than two years ago before the onset of recession.

“The board, which consists of ocean carriers, recognized that we as a portal had solved their basic requirement for why they formed us, asked us to develop a broader strategy going forward,” Bloom said. “We found the electronic invoicing opportunity and the idea of delivering e-commerce to freight forwarders and NVOs.”

The board, which was then made up of directors from INTTRA’s six founding shareholders Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co., CMA CGM, Hamburg Sud, Hapag-Lloyd and United Arab Shipping Co., approved INTTRA management’s plan. “But it wanted us to develop them on a commercial basis, not a consortium basis, and we should find an investor,” Bloom said.

In 2009 INTTRA, on which shippers can make electronic bookings for their cargo with 19 carriers, had a record year, with container transactions growing to 14.1 million container orders, supported by a 34 percent annual growth in network connections. “Shipping instructions for containers through the portals continued to grow at 3 to 4 percent per month through the economic crisis,” Bloom said.

Last March, before bringing in new investment, the carriers that were using the INTTRA portal signed long-term contracts worth $100 million that nailed down their portal services going forward.

INTTRA has already introduced electronic invoicing through its portal. “The new investment will help us build that out,” Bloom said.