TradeLink’s founders are sharpening their areas of responsibility: Tobias Nendel is taking over as the new CEO with overall operational responsibility, driving the company’s evolution into an agentic platform. Frederic Krahforst is moving into a strategic role as Chairman. With this new structure, TradeLink is establishing a new working model for the collaborative development of AI solutions with its customers.
Munich, October 6, 2026 – TradeLink is restructuring its leadership effective September 1st: After more than six years of joint management, the two founders are Tobias Nendel and Frederic Krahforst adjusting their roles to position the company for its next phase of growth and technology. Tobias Nendel, previously TradeLink’s CPTO, is assuming the role of CEO, taking on overall operational responsibility. In this position, he will more specifically drive the company’s AI transformation and the development of solutions for logistics customers. As Chairman, Frederic Krahforst will focus on long-term strategic direction, market positioning, and engagement with industry partners and investors. He remains closely connected to TradeLink as a co-founder, shareholder, and advisor.
From a network to an agentic platform for Europe’s supply chains
With over 20 years of experience in building innovative technology companies, Tobias Nendel brings both technological expertise and entrepreneurial drive to his new role. Under his leadership, TradeLink will evolve even more purposefully from a connected network into an agentic platform for Europe’s supply chains. More than 10,000 companies already coordinate their flow of goods via TradeLink, including sites, suppliers, carriers, and other logistics partners. Building on this network, TradeLink is developing the next generation of its platform: AI agents designed to gradually take over routine tasks, consolidate information from various sources, and prepare next steps. TradeLink’s long-term goal is to become the Agentic OS for Europe’s supply chains—the central inbound and outbound network that brings Europe’s flow of goods together.
“We are in a phase where AI and platform expansion will determine TradeLink’s next growth step. By focusing our leadership structure, Frederic and I are creating the conditions to tackle this phase with the right mandate and at full speed,” says Tobias Nendel, CEO of TradeLink. “In many logistics organizations, entire teams spend hours in Outlook and Excel. We want to give them that time back so they can focus on what only humans can do: managing supplier relationships, handling bottlenecks, and improving processes. The smarter the models become, the more important the framework in which they operate. That is exactly the framework we provide with our network and the process knowledge gained from our customers’ daily flow of goods.”
The first agent in action: Emma takes over the notification routine
With the AI assistant “Emma” , TradeLink has already reached a first milestone in its transformation process: Emma reads the notification inbox, assigns delivery notes, and prepares deliveries. The result: Emma processes over 95 percent of notification emails without needing further input. In the future, Emma is set to answer emails from suppliers and carriers independently, understand processes from Excel lists, and identify potential for improvement across sites. Additional agents are being developed for order management, scheduling & routing, time slot management, goods receipt, and discrepancy handling. Exceptions, priorities, and approvals remain with the teams. They define what an agent handles autonomously and what is escalated to them.
New working model for the next growth phase
The new distribution of roles also creates the framework for a changed AI working model with TradeLink’s customers. Moving forward, the company will work even more closely on the specific challenges faced by its customers. Plans include workshops, proofs of concept, and co-development projects where TradeLink will develop new AI solutions for logistics together with its partners. Since the beginning of the year, this approach has already received additional momentum from major customers who are working with TradeLink to develop concrete applications for automating operational logistics challenges. Pilot projects are testing which applications relieve the burden on teams, what requirements they need, and where human decision-making remains essential. This step-by-step approach creates reliable AI products that give TradeLink customers more room to solve bottlenecks and manage more business.
Tobias is a gifted entrepreneur and, as a technologist and product leader, is exactly the right person to lead TradeLink into the next phase of our agentic platform as CEO, where we will continue to deliver on our commitment to providing the best customer solution. We are facing an exciting and promising time, says Frederic Krahforst, Chairman and Co-Founder of TradeLink.
Images for free use can be found at TradeLink_CEO.
About TradeLink
TradeLink is building an agentic platform that is taking European supply chains to the next level. Routine tasks are handled by intelligent AI agents, while critical decisions and prioritization remain with the teams. A network that connects companies, suppliers, and carriers ensures maximum transparency, reduces time loss, and creates a secure and trusted process. With TradeLink, companies manage their logistics proactively instead of playing catch-up.
Further information is available at https://www.tradelink.co/en-gb/
Press Contact
André Hoffmann
FAKTOR 3 AG
Phone: +49 40 679446-53
tradelink@faktor3.de
