Crafting Bharat - S2 launches their sixth episode with Swapnil Shah of Freight Tiger

Business Standard

17-06-2025

VMPL
New Delhi [India], June 17: India stands at a pivotal crossroads in its history, confidently embracing its role as a global powerhouse in the 21st century. Currently the world's fifth-largest economy, projections indicate that by 2027, India will become the third largest, and by 2047, it is poised to evolve into a US$30 trillion economy with all the hallmarks of a developed nation.
The "Crafting Bharat - Season 2" powered by AWS Startups, an initiative by NewsReach, in association with VCCircle, and production partner - HT Smartcast, explores how startups are harnessing the power of the cloud to accelerate growth, optimise operations, and build solutions that will define the India of Tomorrow. This series is hosted by Gautam Srinivasan, famed for hosting a diverse range of TV and digital programs, currently consulting editor at CNBC (India), CNN-News18, Forbes India, and The Economic Times.
In this episode, we spotlight Swapnil Shah, Founder and CEO of Freight Tiger, who are developing the nation by providing an end-to-end freight management platform for frictionless logistics. He shares insights about the logistics ecosystem, digitizing the freight industry, and how AWS helps them innovate their product.
Freight Tiger currently manages close to 5% of the country's road freight--an impressive share that it aims to quadruple to 20% over the next four years.
In this series, explore inspiring startup stories that are shifting gears and sparking innovation across sectors, all contributing to India's transformation into a developed nation by 2047 in this captivating series.
Watch Episode: https://youtu.be/F3X736zDmO0
Edited Excerpts:
Segment 1: Ignite
It's not easy to experiment in the logistics space right because any small change can have exponential side effects so in that context without any shortcuts available how did you get your product market fit?
My engineering background shapes my approach--even after business school, I remain an engineer at heart. In engineering, you start with a small experiment, test, refine, and then scale up. As Brian Armstrong famously said, "action produces information." Rather than overthink without product-market fit, we rapidly iterate based on customer and team feedback. Being truly customer-centric, we work backwards from our clients' needs, which has been key to clarifying our strategy and achieving success.
How did you manage the product roadmap and upsells during this growth period?
We started with a very simple idea--everyone in India wanted to know where their shipment was and what the ETA would be. For the first two years, Freight Tiger focused purely on track and trace, staying under the radar as many viewed it as just a basic visibility solution. But what we were actually doing was pioneering real-time, in-transit visibility in India. We were the first to crack this, even at a time when GPS units were scarce on trucks. Whether or not a truck had telematics, we figured out how to provide accurate real-time location and ETA data.
A key innovation was our introduction of the electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD) system, which significantly streamlined the confirmation process and reduced delivery disputes--bringing much-needed transparency to a historically opaque process.
In our ecosystem, we don't serve just one customer--we serve three: the shipper, the logistics service provider, and the fleet owner or driver. And within that, there are also consignees and receivers. If we were going to build a true network and enable network-level visibility, we had to do it from the ground up--and digitally, since we never aimed to own physical assets.
In fact, we're connecting shippers, logistics service providers, and truckers with a thread of technology that transforms logistics from a fragmented and manual industry to one that's connected and intelligent.
Segment 2: Launch
How is your tech stack evolving to cater to shorter timelines of delivery in services every year?
We quickly realized that a software-led approach was the only way to tackle the complexity of logistics at scale. Managing complexity while keeping things scalable and fast: that's been one of our biggest challenges. It's not just about our internal delivery timelines, but also about helping our customers meet increasingly tight delivery expectations--especially in today's world of quick commerce. Logistics is a physical, multi-party domain--there are trucks, vessels, ports, consignees, and so many moving pieces. Building a system that can abstract that physical chaos into a clean, usable digital layer is extremely difficult, but also what makes this such an interesting problem to solve.
Sub-segment: Boost
How does partnering with AWS helps you to innovate on product and tech while the engines keep running smoothly?
From day one, Freight Tiger has been built on AWS. For any startup looking to launch quickly, the flexibility and scalability AWS offers is a game-changer--it's something we might take for granted today, but it truly lowers the barrier to entry, both in terms of speed and cost. They worked closely with us to understand our goals--like optimizing infrastructure cost per trip to better serve our customers--and we've continued to fine-tune that with them. This partnership has been genuinely fantastic and has played a key role in helping us scale efficiently while serving customers of all sizes.
Freight Tiger's growth journey has also been backed by high-quality global investors--including Tata Motors--who bring not just capital but deep industry insight, giving the company a solid foundation for long-term impact.
Segment 3: Orbit
What is Freight Tiger's goal in terms of making its sustainability factor go up to be in sync with the nation's net zero targets?
One major challenge in the industry is that 30-40% of vehicle capacity runs as empty miles, which is highly inefficient. At the same time, there's growing momentum toward adopting alternate fuels, including electric and hybrid vehicles. But when shippers are under pressure to deliver quickly, sustainability often takes a back seat. Our goal is to change that by becoming a strategic partner to our customers--helping them identify logistics service providers and truck owners who operate cleaner, more sustainable fleets. With the robust freight ecosystem we've built, Freight Tiger is uniquely positioned to drive this shift at scale.
As India strides toward becoming a developed nation, the logistics sector will play a pivotal role in shaping that future. A seamless, efficient, and sustainable logistics ecosystem will not only accelerate economic growth but also elevate the country to new heights on the global stage.
Stay tuned to Crafting Bharat - Season 2 as we bring you these inspiring entrepreneurs for insightful and candid discussion with Gautam Srinivasan.
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