Nowports

Nowports is a digital freight forwarder serving Latin America, describing itself as the first digital freight forwarder moving ocean containers to and from the region. It combines freight forwarding services — ocean (FCL and LCL), air (courier and 'plus cargo'), and ground transport including container drayage, cross-border crossing and bull pen — with customs brokerage, cargo insurance, a quarterly cashback loyalty program, and import financing available in Mexico that lets clients pay up to 120 days after import, underwritten against cargo already moving with the company [0]. Its software platform provides real-time shipment tracking with ETA alerts from a control tower, centralized digital documentation (bills of lading, invoices, permits), status reports, and per-operation invoicing, payment and cashback balances [0].

The company positions itself as an integrated, one-stop supply chain solution: beyond moving cargo, it automates insurance policies and provides inventory financing so customers can acquire merchandise and pay later, with approvals based on their shipping history and data already held in the platform [1][2]. Management has described the use of artificial intelligence, big data and IoT to improve the import and export chain, including smart containers that let customers remotely monitor conditions such as humidity and temperature [4][6][7]. Nowports states that roughly 54 million containers move in and out of Latin America each year and that nearly half are delayed or lost due to mismanagement or weather, and it claims its models and algorithms cut delays by up to 40% [2][3][5].

Nowports graduated from Y Combinator's Winter 2019 batch and subsequently raised Series A, B and C rounds, reaching a $1.1 billion valuation in May 2022 and becoming what Bloomberg Línea described as Mexico's eighth unicorn and Latin America's first LogiTech unicorn [1][4][5].

Founding story

Alfonso 'Poncho' de los Ríos and Maximiliano Casal, both software engineers, met in 2017 at a summer bootcamp at Stanford University, where they worked together in a competition. Casal later moved to Kansas City to work as a freight forwarder for one of the world's largest forwarding groups, while de los Ríos had been exposed to the industry since childhood through his family's traditional freight forwarding company in Monterrey, Mexico. Concluding that Latin American logistics was ripe for innovation, they built an MVP within weeks, acquired first customers, and were invited into Y Combinator's Winter 2019 batch after Casal applied to more than 30 accelerators; they turned down an earlier US accelerator offer of $50,000 to pursue YC [3][5]. At YC demo day they raised a seed round of $8.6 million [5].

Business model

Nowports operates as an asset-light digital freight forwarder, arranging and coordinating international shipments for importers and exporters and layering adjacent financial products on top of the freight relationship. Revenue-generating services include maritime, air and ground transport, customs brokerage, cargo insurance sold within the shipment workflow, and inventory/import financing; the company says it competes on pricing through partnerships with major shipping lines and airlines and states it generates profit on every transaction it performs [0][3][4].

Fees from freight forwarding and customs services, plus cargo insurance and financing products (including import financing with payment terms of up to 120 days in Mexico); a quarterly cashback program returns up to $3,000 USD in discounts to frequent shippers based on volume [0][4].

Traction

The company reported 142 employees and 2020 revenue growth of 605% versus 2019 at the time of its Series A [2]. In Q1 2022 it reported revenue growth of more than 12x year over year and 10x growth in containers shipped and customers served, with more than 2,100 clients (versus about 1,000 at the Series B) and more than 500 employees [1][4]. Y Combinator lists a team size of 550 [5]; a directory profile lists 501-1,000 employees [3]. The company website claims more than 5,000 satisfied clients, more than 200 strategic partners and more than 90 countries connected [0].

Latest developments

The most recent financing documented in these sources is the $150 million Series C announced in May 2022 at a $1.1 billion valuation, earmarked for hiring (especially engineering), expanding financing services across its markets, building a more robust platform, and opening offices in additional cities starting in Brazil, Mexico and Chile [1][4]. The company's current website advertises services including quarterly cashback of up to $3,000 USD and import financing in Mexico with payment up to 120 days after import [0]. A YC news listing references a March 2023 piece on nearshoring and Mexico [5].