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BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, is teaming up with Flexport Inc. to expand the digital logistics platform’s financing options for companies facing higher tariff costs and other trade-related strains on cash flow.
The $250 million from BlackRock-managed funds and accounts will double Flexport’s lending capacity, Flexport Chief Financial Officer Stuart Leung said. The freight company’s financial services arm, Flexport Capital, has provided more than $2 billion since it started in 2017.
Flexport ranks No. 33 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America, No. 43 on the ocean freight carriers list and No. 31 among airfreight forwarders.
While President Donald Trump boasts about how much revenue U.S. tariffs generate for the federal government, the burden of paying his new import taxes falls directly on American importers.
Steeper global trade costs are boosting demand from Flexport’s customers for term loans, tariff financing and asset-based lines of credit to fund product cycles — the period from factory order to customer delivery that might last six months.
Policy changes including higher U.S. tariffs “deeply impact global trade and apply a lot of pressure to companies,” Leung said in an interview. “They create uncertainties, require companies to rewire their supply chains and supplier networks, and they tie up working capital for businesses that they need to operate and grow.”
Flexport Capital is seeing surging demand, he said, and the four-year collaboration with BlackRock “enables us to meet this growing demand.” It’ll allow financing across various points of companies’ supply chains — through purchase orders, inventory pickup, freight movement, warehousing and final delivery.
With American tariffs ranging from 10% on U.K. imports to 50% on goods from India starting Aug. 27, as well as changes like the end of the U.S.’s de minimis rule beginning Aug. 29, Leung said “it’s a very critical moment for most businesses.”
Bloomberg Beta, the venture-capital arm of Bloomberg LP, is an investor in Flexport.
