Accelerate Kuehne+Nagel's Logistics Digital Optimization — Success stories

Kuehne+Nagel, the world's 2nd largest logistics company, partnered with Xelerate to open a tech competence centre in Porto in 2021 — one of only three global development hubs, alongside Hamburg and Tallinn. Xelerate led the hub setup and management before a successful handover in 2022, with the team now operating at full cruising speed.

Kuehne+Nagel is the 2nd largest logistics company in the world, with close to 80,000 employees, a presence in more than 100 countries, and roughly 1,600 offices worldwide. It is an outstanding leader in maritime freight, and as one of the most established names in global logistics, optimization is its greatest ongoing challenge — moving goods, data, and information across an enormous, complex network with maximum efficiency.

To meet this challenge, Kuehne+Nagel has been investing heavily in technology, building internal software engineering capabilities to develop mission-critical products, e-solutions, and digital services in-house. The company operates three major development hubs worldwide: Hamburg, Tallinn, and Porto — with Porto chosen specifically for its access to highly skilled, international tech talent and its growing reputation as one of Europe's leading tech ecosystems.

In July 2021, Xelerate partnered with Kuehne+Nagel to open and manage this new hub in Porto, taking on the full complexity of setting up local operations — recruitment, onboarding, labour law, infrastructure — so Kuehne+Nagel's team could focus from day one on building products rather than navigating a new market. In May 2022, having established a solid, high-performing team and operating model, Xelerate completed the handover and stepped back from hub management. The Porto hub has since grown well beyond its original scope and is now operating at full cruising speed, standing as one of Kuehne+Nagel's key global technology centres.