5U AI lands $3.2M pre-seed for AI freight workforce platform

Freight forwarding runs on a mess of inboxes, spreadsheets, and tribal knowledge that lives only in the heads of a handful of overworked ops people. That's the pitch behind 5U AI, a Munich-based startup that just closed $3.2 million in pre-seed funding led by London's Emerge Capital, with backing from logistics industry veterans who clearly know exactly where the pain points sit.

Founded this year by Technical University of Munich grads Yagiz Abik and Fehmi Şener, 5U AI isn't chasing the generic AI-agent hype cycle. Its platform plugs into existing freight systems and takes over the grunt work: quoting, bookings, shipment tracking, invoice reconciliation, data entry, the administrative sludge that eats up hours for air, sea, and road freight teams across Europe. The company calls these AI-driven helpers