Alexandra Escanero, CEO of Kaiona, looks back on the years that took her from selling chewing gum in Barcelona to founding her own logistics tech company.
I started working at Lufthansa Cargo more than 20 years ago, the way most important things in life happen: by chance. I had arrived in Barcelona at just 20 years old from my hometown, Zaragoza, and at the time I was making a living introducing Orbit chewing gum all over the city. The gum, like me, had only just landed in Barcelona.
One day a recruitment agency called me because my CV had slipped, by mistake, into the selection process for a sales role at Lufthansa Cargo. I had no idea what air cargo was, but at twenty, freshly arrived from Zaragoza and knowing it was a great opportunity, I thought: sounds good. I went to the interview and was lucky enough to be selected.
That was the start of my career, and the beginning of a path that would lead me to work in freight forwarding for almost two decades, at companies such as ABX (later DSV), Noatum and MAT Cargo. Later I made the jump to the technology side with Webcargo, right as it was growing within the air cargo ecosystem. Webcargo has been one of the best work experiences of my life. One day I’ll tell that story.
During those almost twenty years in forwarding I learned a huge amount, met fantastic people and came to understand the complexity of the sector inside out: air cargo, ocean freight, road transport, the headaches of customs, customs declarations, delays, and that uncomfortable feeling that the forwarder always takes the blame for everything that happens along the way. I shared everything from day-to-day work to management committees with incredible people, and many of them I can proudly call friends today.
After five years at Webcargo, the opportunity to start my own company passed right in front of my eyes. It was something that had actually been my dream since I was little. At eight I was already running “little businesses” in my village: I made rose water by pulling the petals off the rose bushes, boiled them, bottled them and sold them door to door to the neighbours. Creating and building things has always been in my nature.
Shortly after, and once again by chance, I crossed paths with the person who would become my business partner. The opportunity, the timing, the need in the industry, the lack of professionals who spoke both languages, that of international trade and that of technology. We both saw it very clearly and joined forces: a perfect match, as my grandmother would have said. And that is when we began to shape what would become our company, Kaiona.
Kaiona is the result of that drive and of the excitement of doing things differently
Today, with all that experience behind us, Kaiona is the result of that drive and of the excitement of doing things differently, things that genuinely improve the day-to-day of an industry we know so well and owe so much to. In practice, that means applying artificial intelligence to the paperwork I knew from the inside (invoices, AWBs, BLs, customs declarations) and connecting it to the systems each company already uses, without migrations.
My partner has an even more unusual story, but he’ll tell that one himself some other day.
Kaiona Tech is a technology company based in Madrid and Barcelona that applies artificial intelligence to the documents and administrative processes of the logistics industry. It automatically reads documents such as AWBs, BLs, invoices and customs declarations, organises shipment files and feeds that data into the systems a company already uses, so nobody has to retype it.
No. Kaiona does not replace your ERP or TMS; it works alongside them. Its K-Plug connector integrates natively with the systems each company already has (more than 10 integrations with ERPs, CRMs and TMSs), so there is nothing to migrate. What changes is that document data reaches the ERP without anyone typing it in.
For companies that handle a lot of paperwork in their logistics operations: freight forwarders, customs brokers, logistics operators and 3PLs, transport, warehousing and distribution companies, and importers and exporters digitalising their document workflows.
A typical implementation takes 8 to 10 weeks. Kaiona is modular: you can start with a single engine, such as automatic invoice reading, and switch on more as you need them. In the projects delivered so far, return on investment has come in under 6 months.
