Dot-com iCargo shuts down
ICargo, an online electronic marketplace designed to serve air freight forwarders and carriers, has shut down.
“Essentially, we ran out of funds,” Ned Wallace, one of iCargo’s co-founders, said Friday.
The company closed down on Thursday because its software did not meet the standards necessary to receive an additional round of financing. Its initial funds came from Morgenthaler Partners, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, Calif.
“We were unable to reach a point with our software developer where the application was acceptable to us. The application failed to meet a number of stringent tests that we had set,” said Wallace, who declined to identify the software developer.
“We’re all very disappointed, and a number of our customers are extremely disappointed,” said Wallace. The customers included including Nippon Cargo Airlines, Air New Zealand and Kintetsu Worldwide Express, he said. Emery Worldwide was also considering iCargo as a platform.
“It was a great concept, but we could never get the application to the point we felt we needed to take it to the marketplace,” said Wallace, who began his career with Flying Tigers in 1966.
Mark West, president of iCargo, could not be reached for comment. In an interview last June, West had said the company planned to go live by late July of 2000. That deadline was repeatedly pushed back.
Wallace and West had previously run Polar Air Cargo, a Long Beach, Calif.-based all-cargo airline. The e-commerce company had 10 employees, including Jack Kane, another Polar veteran, Steve Ritchie and Roy Hecteman.
The demise of iCargo reflects the high cost of establishing a viable e-commerce platform for the air cargo industry.
ICargo’s collapse leaves London-based Global Freight Exchange as the only company offering an Internet-based service connecting air forwarders and carriers. GF-X has obtained $85 million in financing. Its backers include Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Consolidated Press Holdings, Deutsche Post World Net, Danzas AEI, Lufthansa, American Airlines and British Airways.
Earlier this month, FreightWise, a dot-com backed by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, suspended operations.
