Cargofirst, a technology-enabled commodity trade company, is expanding beyond commodity inspection and trade execution to build an AI-powered intelligence platform for exporters, importers and commodity traders through Blinkus.ai.
Founded in 2022, Cargofirst has grown to 1,000+ B2B users across Southeast Asia and Africa, generating approximately $500,000 in revenue last year while maintaining profitability since inception, with relatively limited external funding.
The company started by solving quality and verification challenges in physical commodity trade and is now building technology across the broader trade lifecycle.
Bringing AI to Commodity Trade
Blinkus.ai is Cargofirst’s AI-powered commodity trade intelligence platform, helping traders analyze markets, trade flows, buyers and sellers, destination opportunities and historical trade data through an AI-first interface.
Currently focused on rice, Blinkus.ai is expanding into additional grain and agricultural commodities.
In the last two months, users of the platform have closed commodity trade deals worth more than $3 million, demonstrating the growing role of AI-powered intelligence in real-world trade decisions.
“We started Cargofirst by working directly on the ground with commodity traders and understanding the challenges they face every day. Today, we are using that experience to build technology that can fundamentally change how commodity trade is researched, evaluated and executed. With Blinkus.ai, our goal is to make complex trade intelligence accessible and actionable, while enabling even small teams to operate with significantly greater productivity,” said Vinay H and Rohit, Co-founders of Cargofirst
Cargofirst is also developing AI-based commodity scanning technology to bring artificial intelligence into physical quality assessment.
The company is seeing significant productivity gains among users, with some businesses managing 50–100 FCLs annually with little or no dedicated operational team by combining technology with external trade infrastructure.
Cargofirst’s long-term vision is to make commodity trade more intelligent, efficient and technology-driven, bringing market intelligence, AI, quality verification and trade execution closer together.
About CargoFirst
Cargofirst QAHO Corporation Private Limited is a technology-enabled commodity trade company building digital infrastructure for exporters, importers and traders.
Founded in 2022, Cargofirst operates across Southeast Asian and African markets, with an initial focus on agricultural commodities including rice and expanding into additional grains.
Its AI platform, Blinkus.ai, helps commodity traders understand markets, identify opportunities and make faster, data-driven decisions.
