Startups

Outrider, an autonomous distribution yard developer, is readying a robotics kit that would allow shippers to automate operations.

NewRoad Capital Partners leads Series B investment in cloud fulfillment platform Logiwa.

The management shakeup at TuSimple has become a full management house cleaning. Hyliion sees early benefits following Cummins’ partnership.

Nikola will keep trying to pass a proposal to increase the number of authorized shares by pressing company stock owners to vote their proxies..

The company specifically runs its fleet on Interstate 5 using proprietary technology to relay drivers.

Nikola founder Trevor Milton will be tried in September rather than July after a new fraud charge led to a plea for more time.

Baton eliminates 25% of its workforce to pivot its business model to focus on its artificial intelligence transportation management software for drop-freight operation

Meet Juliette, the laundry company founded by Rechelle Balanzat that’s using logistics to take its business to new heights.

Nikola founder Trevor Milton has been irritating the company he once led since leaving in September 2020.

Blackstone Group, one of the premier New York investment groups, is putting $130 million on fintech/freight tech firm PayCargo.

It’s the end of the line for Electric Last Mile Solutions as it becomes the first transportation SPAC to file for bankruptcy liquidation.

Alphabet-backed Wing is hoping to expand its drone delivery service in Virginia through the introduction of a public delivery zone.

TuSimple co-founder Mo Chen launches Hydron, an autonomous trucking venture that would use hydrogen fuel to achieve zero emissions.

Last Mile Solutions told the Securities and Exchange Commission it is nearly out of cash and could run out of money this month.

“One of the more challenging aspects of any tech startup is to strategically coordinate the scale of the organization. Working closely with Microsoft will help ensure we are utilizing best practices to develop rapidly without incurring technical debt,” says FetchGoat’s CTO.

Startup WattEV sees its Truck-as-a-Service startup as a modern day Pony Express with electric trucks being swapped instead of horses .

Nikola Corp. adjourned its annual meeting Wednesday after too few investors voted on a proposal to raise the number of shares in the electric truck maker.

Freightos, a backed by FedEx, is raising capital through a special purpose acquisition company and IPO.

Infrastructure. How important is a fixed base of electric charging for commercial vehicles? Maybe not as much as we’re told.

“Ensuring companies stay compliant certainly isn’t the sexiest venture, but in the trucking industry, it’s one of the most important aspects to get right.”

Australia’s Tritium is making a charge in U.S. market with a move into direct current fast charging for electric trucks.

“The time is right for a seismic shift online in the world of open deck shipping. Thanks to its shipper TMS solution, internal TMS and carrier management portal, we feel EXO Freight is poised to fundamentally improve the economics and quality of life for open deck carriers and their drivers,” said Dan Ahrens, managing partner at Left Lane Capital.

Autonomous technology company Gatik will expand operations in Kansas.

Electric work truck startup Atlis Motor Vehicles has crowdfunded $32.6 million from nearly 29,000 investors as it readies a public offering.

Lordstown Motors lives to fight another day with the $230 million sale of the plant it basically got for free from General Motors.

Startup Xos Trucks introduced full-fledged heavy- and medium-duty electric chassis cabs, signifying its graduation from a powertrain component integrator.

Autonomous trucking startup Plus is making a scaled-back version of its autonomous trucking software available through upfitting.

Byrd currently services the U.K., France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, and with its new capital, the company plans to expand its delivery network and warehouse capabilities to Sweden, Denmark and Poland.

Is a bigger battery on wheels the best way to make autonomous trucks more efficient? Solo Advanced Vehicle Technologies thinks so.

Ride-hailing snack company Robomart will start delivering ice cream on demand this summer through a partnership with Unilever.

Electric truck maker Nikola posted its first gross profit in Q1 and racked up orders backed by California incentives.

Paxafe closes on additional $1.5 million round led by Venture 53 with participation from Value Chain Ventures, project44’s Jett McCandless and Metafora’s Peter Rentschler.

TuSimple, the autonomous truck developer is delaying its purpose-built driverless truck to 2025 while slowing its roll in other areas.

Nikola is raising money to scale its production of electric trucks through sales of new stock and tapping an equity line of credit.

The survival of electric pickup truck startup Lordstown Motors likely hinges on completing the plant sale to Taiwan’s Foxconn.

“Our belief is we can use the software we have built for large carriers to do the last mile and apply that software for local DC-to-DC [shipments] to pass our relay efficiencies and savings to shippers while allowing drivers in our network to earn more,” said Baton’s co-founder.

Class 8 battery-electric trucks will generate the first meaningful revenue that Nikola can take to the bank.

Electric chassis startups from A to Z are tapping a legacy bodybuilder for help while one company creates its own complete electric van.

Agility Robotics has raised $150 million to fund development of its walking warehouse robots.

Middle-mile technology company Warp is joining the Urban Freight Lab to help study last-mile delivery efficiency.

The accelerator firm’s Supply Chain Innovation Platform connects Fortune 500 companies with FreightTech startups for continuous logistics innovation and efficiency.

“We have a huge opportunity to let the world know that a tracking solution like this exists. We are going to take this funding and make sure that happens,” said Tive founder and CEO Krenar Komoni.

Truck Tech is a weekly newsletter providing perspective and context on autonomy, electrification and other technologies impacting the fleet ecosystem.

S+V Technologies’ solution to sell products in transit caught the attention of investors including Ridgeline Partners, Chicago Ventures and project44 founder and CEO Jett McCandless.

Nikola has put wheels in motion to sell up to $1.2 billion in new stock to keep scaling its electric truck and hydrogen businesses.

Maersk will deploy 300 Class 8 electric trucks from Einride in its U.S. warehouse and distribution network.

Aircon is “building technology to achieve operational efficiencies that will change what air cargo means to the global supply chain.”

Nikola is asking shareholders to dilute their investment by authorizing 200 million new shares of the electric truck maker that could raise $1.5 billion.

Startup Kodiak Robotics is the first to run regular autonomous loads to Oklahoma in a partnership with Ceva Logistics.

EcoCart will manage a new carbon-offset program for Walmart Canada that will aim to eliminate emissions from its last-mile delivery operation.

The more ocean shipping is in the news, the more attention it gets from tech founders and investors.

Robotic delivery provider Kiwibot has announced a new funding round and a major contract with food services provider Sodexo.

Parade garners impressive support from both Silicon Valley and Freight Alley.

Outrider is adding autonomously precise backing of trailers to the dock to its range of driverless services in distribution yards.

“What Leaf is doing — building a highly connected and forward-looking view of the industry from the ground up — just can’t be done by incumbents operating within the existing constructs of the industry,” says partner at Sozo Ventures.

Truckload capacity management platform Parade plans to grow its team, expand its capabilities and add third-party partners to increase its value to customers.

Self-driving technology startup Waabi has introduced its Waabi World simulator, a technology that company founder Raquel Urtasun said is able to “teach” autonomous vehicles how to drive in a safer manner.

With experience from J.B. Hunt, Penske Logistics and Transplace, Mark McEntire looks forward to his new role at procurement and logistics platform Emerge.

Embark Trucks’ connection with Knight-Swift will lead to the installation of high-autonomy software by the end of 2022.

Via.Delivery has found that 18% of U.S. consumers use buy-online, pick-up-anywhere services when offered at checkout.

Navistar’s new CEO aligns with parent Traton Group in declaring batteries will be the ultimate solution to zero-emission transportation.

Truck Tech is a weekly newsletter providing perspective and context on autonomy, electrification and other technologies impacting the fleet ecosystem.

TuSimple advances its commercialization timetable for driverless trucking and adds intermodal freight for Union Pacific at the Port of Tucson in Arizona.

RenoRun, a last-mile delivery provider of building and construction materials, has raised $142 million in a series B round and announced its expansion to Washington, D.C.

Conversational analytics tool Athena received the 2021 Cool Vendor in Analytics and Data Science award from Gartner.

With its foundation in place, Gatik looks to accelerate middle-mile autonomous deliveries across North America.

DroneUp CEO Tom Walker sat down with Modern Shipper to discuss his company’s expanding delivery business, including its partnership with Walmart.

Electric cargo bike delivery provider Urb-E is expanding to Los Angeles as the first city in an expansion of its service in 2022.

Warehouse robotics firm Exotec has raised $335 million in funding as it looks to deploy more of its solutions in fulfillment operations.

Robotic Assistance Devices Mobile is looking to bring to market a 700-pound autonomous robot for logistics and last-mile delivery operations.

Walmart InHome customers in Florida will get first access to HomeValet’s Smart Box, a lockable, temperature-controlled porch box.

“We don’t partner with one asset, we partner with all box truck assets in a region and we aggregate the totality of orders to be sure that there is one full truck delivering to one ZIP code,” said Onward Delivery CEO Grafton Elliott.

“The trucking insurance industry hasn’t innovated anything for the last few decades, so we thought with our insights and the right person we could change that,” said CEO Mats Holmback.

“Our technology is picking loads for drivers based on what is best for the driver and what will generate the most revenue on the truck, which in turn, generates the highest potential salary for our drivers” said AI Fleet co-founder and CEO Marc El Khoury.

Vendorflow has attracted investment from industry leaders with project44, Flock Freight, Best Bay Logistics and NEXT Trucking.

The co-founder said many of his current investors called Uber and other marketplaces to discuss their flatbed capabilities but were told that “they did not intend to make that a core focus.”

“With GCP as a partner, their strategic connections will allow us to build the technology that our FDPs are craving,” says the FRONTDoor Collective COO.

“Amazon Web Services makes it easy to host web applications for scalable solutions. We are looking to do the same thing for supply chain software by breaking down the data barriers that stop anyone from building the tools they need to offer better services.”

“There was a lot of flexibility in their API that allowed us to do what we wanted to do with it, compared to others that had a lot of pre-built tools.”

“Iowa is now at the leading edge of the inclusion of blockchain in contract law here,” said CEO Spillman, as his team recently fought to have smart contracts recognized under law in Toggle’s operating state.

“I’ve coined it the ‘superpower of check calls,’” said TextLocate founder Ryan Rogers.

White-label platform raises $2.5 million to bring real-time, guaranteed container rates to global shippers of all sizes.

Temperature-controlled logistics real estate investment trust Lineage Logistics and venture capital firm 8VC have formed an alliance to invest in technology startups in the transportation and logistics industry.

Talkshoplive and its embeddable player network received a huge boost with $6 million in funding.

Available in late 2021, the company’s card will allow drivers to facilitate transactions anywhere Visa is accepted.

“I think about the fact that if we fulfill this mission, the world is better off and not many opportunities have that.”

CEO Todd Ehrlich says the venture studio model leverages valuable resources for innovators to build startups faster and with less complexity and capital.

Founders Camp, the Dynamo-powered event for founders and startup companies, will take place in November alongside FreightWaves’ F3: Future of Freight Festival in Chattanooga.

Optimal Dynamics has raised $18 million in a Series A round to fund the deployment of its CORE.ai decision-making engine for logistics operations.

Within maritime logistics circles, an effort is underway to update the technology the industry relies on to take advantage of recent advancements in hardware and software technology.

Research firm Cowen has set a price target of $28.50 per share for EV startup Arrival – more than $10 higher than Monday’s trading price. Cowen cited its unique approach to manufacturing as one reason for its optimism.

FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller writes about FreightWaves, as well as transportation today and moving forward.

Turvo’s Luis Pajares explains why software that was traditionally optimized around a particular supply chain function needs to be reimagined from the 3PL customers’ perspective.

Even as the relationship between Ryder and Chanje was hitting the rocks, Ryder continued to do new deals with the supplier of electric vehicles and touted its role in the company’s green plans.

SPAC acquisitions are cropping up with more frequency, and we can only expect more deals to go through in 2021.

Fluid Truck specializes in box trucks and cargo vans and focuses on last mile

Keynoting an Evolve summit session, Dan Pickering and Scott Gale call for traditional, transitional energy players to meet in the middle.

The asset-light warehouse startup will use the capital to expand its network, co-founder says.

Evan Efstathiou discusses why VCs are looking to invest more in maritime just as shipowners are looking to partner more with startups.

Suvrat Joshi joins logistics software-as-a-service platform FarEye as chief product officer.