Aircon AI Wants to Modernize the Air Cargo Market with $8M 

According to Aircon, over 87% of air freight quotes never convert, lost to outdated systems and manual processes. For small and midsize freight forwarders who handle much of the global air cargo volume, that inefficiency is a barrier to survival.

This is the problem the Texas-based freight tech startup is solving with purpose-built AI. With $8 million in seed funding from investors including Blumberg Capital, Las Olas VC, and Underscore VC, the company is emerging as a central player in a long-overdue modernization of the $270 billion global airfreight industry.

An Industry in Need of Reinvention

The air cargo sector has been slow to digitize, especially compared to other parts of the logistics chain. Freight forwarders often rely on spreadsheets, email chains, and phone calls to quote and track shipments. This reliance on manual workflows limits capacity and reduces competitiveness, particularly for smaller firms without the tech muscle of global giants.

Aircon’s founders, Chris Condon, Irl Wakefield, and Dennis Oleksyuk, bring a rare combination of logistics industry experience and data science acumen. Condon, a freight forwarding veteran, founded Aircon in 2021 after experiencing firsthand the structural disadvantages facing smaller forwarders. “We’re building the solution I wish I had when I was in their shoes, one that not only makes processes more efficient, but fundamentally changes the game,” he said.