sennder funding: Berlin freight start-up secures €228 million, turns EBITDA-positive

sennder, the Berlin-based digital road freight company, announced on Wednesday, 11 November 2026 that it has secured a financing package of €228 million, made up of €73 million in equity from existing shareholders and €155 million in debt and working-capital facilities. The equity round was led by the Swedish truck maker Scania and the Italian postal and logistics group Poste Italiane. The company also said it has turned EBITDA-positive on an unadjusted monthly basis and expects revenue of about €1 billion in 2026, after integrating the European road freight business it bought from the US logistics company C.H. Robinson in 2024.

Road freight in Europe is a huge but fragmented business. Many small trucking firms move goods for large shippers, and brokers sit in between. sennder is one of the start-ups that set out to digitise this brokerage: shippers post loads, and the company's software matches them with carriers, sets prices and tracks deliveries.

The mix of money in this package says a lot about where late-stage start-ups are today. Only about a third is fresh equity, and it comes from existing shareholders rather than new venture capital firms. Most of the package is debt tied to the company's day-to-day operations. A factoring line, for instance, lets sennder turn unpaid customer invoices into cash quickly, which matters in freight, where a broker often pays truckers before the shipper pays the broker. That kind of financing is usually available only to companies with steady revenue and a credible path to profit.

That is why the company's statement that it has turned EBITDA-positive is central. EBITDA means earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; being positive on that measure means the business's operations are earning more than they cost, before financing and accounting charges. For a start-up that has grown largely through funding rounds and an acquisition, reaching that point is what makes lenders willing to step in.

The backers also matter. Scania builds trucks, and Poste Italiane runs a large logistics network, so both are strategic investors with a direct interest in how freight is bought and moved. A public lender, the EIB, is also in the package.

Peepals calculation: Of the €228 million, equity makes up about 32% (73 ÷ 228 ≈ 0.32) and debt and working-capital facilities about 68% (155 ÷ 228 ≈ 0.68). The Coface factoring line alone is about 65% of the debt portion (100 ÷ 155 ≈ 0.65). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: The money supports the integration of the former C.H. Robinson European road freight business and gives sennder working capital to pay carriers while it waits for shippers to settle invoices.

Long-term: If sennder reaches about €1 billion in revenue while staying profitable at the operating level, it would strengthen the case that digital freight brokerage can work at scale in Europe, which may encourage similar models elsewhere.

Who is affected: Shippers and trucking companies that use sennder in Europe, its strategic investors, lenders including the EIB and Coface, and rival digital freight platforms.

What to watch next: Whether sennder reaches its stated goal of about €1 billion in revenue for 2026.

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