WaVe-X, the venture capital arm of the Austrian Walter Group, has acquired a stake in Berlin technology company Conlio. The start-up focuses on automating administrative procedures and financial processes in European road freight transport using artificial intelligence. In total, the capital raised by Conlio to date stands at EUR 6.4 million.
The latest financing round is led by Piton Capital. Alongside WaVe-X, Haufe Group Ventures and the Fiege investment vehicle F-LOG are also participating as co-investors. In addition to financial resources, Walter Group is contributing its long-standing industry experience in European road freight transport to provide operational support for the Berlin-based company's scaling.
Automated document verification in road haulage
In the European transport sector, manual verification processes tie up significant resources. Documents such as consignment notes, proofs of delivery and invoices are often available in different formats and multiple languages, which traditionally delays invoicing and settlement. Conlio offers an AI-based software platform that captures these records, checks their content and identifies discrepancies in payments.
- —Automation of more than 90 per cent of routine document checks
- —Increase in operating profit (EBIT) at freight forwarding companies of up to 30 per cent
- —Acceleration of accounting and payment flows along the transport chain
The technology company was founded by Dr Claudio Consul, who previously served as Senior Vice President of Product at a digital freight forwarding business. Consul emphasised that the manual administrative complexity behind transport documents and billing sustainably impairs efficiency in the sector. Conlio is already cooperating with freight forwarders in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Denmark.
Use of proceeds and European growth plans
Thomas Muscher, Managing Director of WaVe-X, highlighted that artificial intelligence is currently making the transition from pilot applications into core processes of the forwarding industry. By converting unstructured freight documents into verified transaction data, the technology forms the foundation for automated workflows in financial processing.
The fresh capital is to be deployed targetedly to expand the proprietary technology team in Berlin, extend the functionality of the software platform and drive further expansion across European logistics markets.
