Today’s Pickup: KeepTruckin announces $50 million cash infusion

Good day,

KeepTruckin announced yesterday it secured $50 million in Series C financing—bringing the company’s total funding to $78 million. The latest round values the company at $500 million dollars according to the Wall Street Journal. With this funding, KeepTruckin plans to invest in product development, expand sales and support teams, and enter new markets. IVP led the round with participation from existing investors Scale Venture Partners, Index Ventures and Google Ventures. IVP General Partner Sandy Miller will join the KeepTruckin Board of Directors and IVP Principal Roseanne Wincek will join as Board Observer, effective immediately.

Based on reports and discussions with folks familiar with KeepTruckin’s plans, the company is believed to be exploring load matching services as part of its offering. If it were to venture in this direction, it would be hitting competition from companies like DAT, Truckstop, BigRoad, Convoy, Uber, and Transfix. Omnitracs, the undisputed leader in enterprise ELD services is also exploring opportunities to match capacity and shippers on a single platform. The new CEO of Omnitracs commented on plans at their user conference in February. Ray Greer described load matching as the “holy-grail of trucking.”

Did you know?

Why have rates been rising? The Federal Reserve generally follows its mandate to maintain full employment in the economy and keep inflation moderate. It uses the target federal funds rate to help smooth out fluctuations in the economy, lowering the rate when the economy is weak and raising it to keep it from overheating and prevent inflation.

Quotable:

“Marrying trade and finance is a thing blockchains will do really well. Every piece is automatically settled. It’s the main point of it, you can get the whole view without any effort because all the different ledgers are synced together.”

–Shidar Gouran, Global Blockchain Technologies president and COO

In other news:

How police tracked down the suspected Austin serial bomber

Authorities tracked down the suspect using a combination of cell phone triangulation technology, surveillance footage from a FedEx drop-off store, and combing through Google searches on the suspect’s computer history, KVUE-TV and the Austin American-Statesman report. (USA Today)

FOMO Grips Wall Street Bankers as Big Uber Debt Deal Slips Away

There’s a palpable sense of missing out — or FOMO in today’s vernacular — coursing through the community of leveraged-loan bankers (Bloomberg)

Shipowners’ Multibillion-Dollar Quandary: Buy Cleaner Fuel or a Fuel Cleaner?

New sulfur caps taking effect in 2020 will cost industry an estimated $40 billion (WSJ)

U.S. judge to question Big Oil on climate change

Five of the world’s biggest energy producers will be questioned by a federal judge on Wednesday about climate change science, part of a lawsuit that accuses the companies of misleading the public for years about their role in global warming. (Reuters)

Trucking Acquisitions Put New Spotlight on Fleet Values

Freight carrier Heartland Express breaks with KPMG after auditor questions ‘ineffective controls’ on setting asset prices in trucking purchase (WSJ)

Final Thoughts:

Is the industry hot right now? It sure is, based on comments at the Transportation & Logistics Council’s 44th Annual Conference, being held this week in Charleston, SC. That was reinforced by Tonn Ostergard, chairman & CEO of Crete Carrier Corp., during his lunchtime keynote address.

“We had 400% more loads tended to us [in February] than we could accept,” he told the audience of brokers, shippers, 3PLs and carriers. “So, I think that tells you how hot the market is.”

Hammer down everyone!

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