Michael Wax graduated from Technische Universität München in 2015. In 2016 he co-founded FreightHub in Berlin with Erik Muttersbach, Ferry Heilemann and Fabian Heilemann, and became CEO.
The first product sold spot-priced full container loads to small and mid-sized businesses. Northzone led a $20 million Series A in 2017. A $30 million Series B followed in May 2019 with Maersk Growth among the investors, and the company became Forto.
In June 2021 SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $240 million round at a $1.2 billion valuation, which made Forto a unicorn. About 2,500 customers used its tools.
In March 2022 a $250 million round led by Disruptive valued Forto at $2.1 billion. After the pandemic boom, freight rates fell, and Forto added customs, integrations and multimodal transport to its offer.