5U AI pre-seed round brings in $3.2M for freight automation

5U AI pre-seed funding has brought the Munich logistics AI startup $3.2 million to expand a digital workforce platform for freight forwarding teams. London-based Emerge Capital led the round, giving a newly founded company capital to sell into an industry where quoting, bookings, tracking and reconciliations still depend heavily on manual operations.

The company did not disclose a valuation, revenue, headcount or the full investor list. 5U AI said it is also backed by experienced logistics industry executives, though it did not name them.

Founded in 2025 by Technical University of Munich graduates Yagiz Abik and Fehmi Şener, 5U AI builds AI-powered digital workers for air, sea and road freight operations. The software connects with existing freight systems and handles tasks including quote preparation, booking management, shipment tracking, invoice reconciliation, data entry and routine administrative work.

What does 5U AI do?

5U AI develops logistics-specific AI workers intended to execute operational freight tasks rather than act as general-purpose chat interfaces. The company says the system is trained for freight workflows, including exceptions and judgment calls that are difficult to address with generic AI tools.

A core part of the product is what 5U AI calls its Decision Layer. According to the company, that layer records the reasoning behind operational decisions, giving freight teams a record of how work was completed and creating a knowledge base that can be used to improve later processes.

That positioning targets a familiar gap in freight forwarding software. Many teams already use transport management systems, email, spreadsheets and customer portals, but the work between those tools often remains manual. 5U AI is pitching its product as a layer that can take on repeatable operational work while preserving the reasoning that experienced coordinators use when shipments deviate from plan.

Abik, 5U AI’s CEO, said freight forwarding decisions are often held in inboxes, spreadsheets and employees’ personal knowledge. He described the company’s goal as building AI workers that understand freight operations, perform tasks and retain the decision logic behind them so teams can increase capacity without losing institutional knowledge.

The platform is already being used by freight forwarders and carriers in Europe, according to 5U AI. The company said those deployments support air and ocean freight operations, but it did not identify customers, contract values or usage volumes.

5U AI plans to use the pre-seed capital to speed up product development and broaden its go-to-market work across Europe. The company also said it will hire across product, engineering, operations, commercial and customer-facing roles.

For Emerge Capital, the deal fits the continued investor push into vertical AI, where startups claim an advantage from narrow workflow knowledge rather than general model capability. In freight forwarding, the test will be whether 5U AI can prove that its digital workers reduce operational load inside existing systems without creating another layer that teams must supervise.

This story draws on original reporting from Tech.eu.