Startups

Shifting rules at marine terminals pose challenge to drayage.

U.K.-based Deliveroo is exiting Germany, citing difficulties in maintaining the level of customer service that it offers across its other markets.

FreightBro is a digital enabler that helps digitalize and automate several manual operations within the shipping industry, tailored to suit small- and mid-tier freight forwarders.

EIV Capital, a Houston firm that invests in energy businesses, recently helped raise $75 million in funding that will research turning dairy cattle’s recycled cow manure into usable, clean energy products. The funding will be used by Amp Americas, a Chicago-based startup that is researching how to transform animal waste and convert it into biogas, […]

If you see a truck driver in Texas without his hands on the wheel, the chances are good you’re seeing an autonomous truck from Kodiak Robotics.

Canadian digital-freight matching platform seeks to list on TSX Venture Exchange with “conservative” C$34 million valuation.

A student team from Germany’s TU Munich achieved a top speed of 463 kmph (288 mph) on its prototype pod at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition.

sennder has now raised nearly €100 million this year across two rounds of funding.

Fretlink connects thousands of carriers with large shippers through a digital freight marketplace that offers reliability on service and freight hauling prices.

Consumer enthusiasm and sky-high valuations disguise a bevy of industry challenges.

There is an abundance of data coming out of food supply chains, and it is important for stakeholders to verify and validate these data points and leverage blockchain to functionally push supply chains forward.

This article brought to you courtesy of NEXT Trucking Transloading services are becoming an increasingly popular option for international shippers looking to beat the cost of carrier haulage by an ocean carrier and to better manage their inventory.  Transloading refers to moving freight cargo from an international 40- or 45-foot ocean container to a domestic […]

Rivigo, a freight and logistics startup in India, has raised $65 million in a Series E round led by existing investors Warburg Pincus and SAIF Partners. The startup plans to use the new capital to further expand its network and tech infrastructure. Founded in 2014 by Gazal Kalra and Deepak Garg, Rivigo owns and operates […]

U.K.-based Kontainers is releasing a new version of its freight booking software platform aimed at the small and mid-size enterprise market and priced per transaction. The software-as-a-service company said Kontainers Essentials, the third iteration of its ecommerce platform, enables smaller freight forwarders “to immediately compete with new digital first market forwarding entrants.” The five-year old […]

The blue-collar job market still uses conventional methods for sourcing and recruitment, making the industry highly inefficient, complex and opaque. Wonolo is automating the redundant manual processes to improve the situation.

Brian Aoaeh has written a thought-provoking commentary on the impact of climate change on supply chains, and what governments, companies and startups can do to mitigate supply chain disruptions.

Opus9 is now offering to match shippers with drayage carriers as it expands coverage to major U.S. ports. The Sunnyvale, California-based startup, which already offers load matching and digital brokerage for truckload and less-than-truckload freight, wants to bring the same level of automation to drayage, said Chief Executive Alex Ryu.  He said the new service […]

Booster, the same-day fuel delivery service, has announced it raised $56 million Series C funding led by Invus Opportunities, with participation from existing partners Madrona Venture Group, Vulcan Capital, Maveron, Conversion Capital and Perot Jain LP. The four-year old Silicon Valley startup is also adding two new strategic investors – Enterprise Holdings Ventures, the venture […]

Charley Dehoney writes about the process to finance a freight tech/logistics tech start-up.

Cargo theft is a problem that has remained constant within the freight industry for many decades. Technology can now help supply chains protect their operations and repel hijackers.

Sentiment toward shipping tech has reached a new high point among startups, tech investors and vessel interests.

The FreightWaves Freight Intel Group is producing research culled from FreightWaves SONAR and other sources. Read about its first several research papers and how to learn more.

Fr8Hub recently announced that it will expand its services to provide domestic freight matching throughout Mexico, connecting shippers with available carriers throughout the country. The Fr8Hub carrier network currently features more than 1,000 carriers in the United States and Mexico, and more than 30,000 available trucks. Since electronic logging devices and global positioning systems are […]

Electric vehicle adoption is constricted by high vehicle sticker price, long charging cycles and limited range. Solving these issues is key.

The WorkHound platform aims to reduce driver turnover by providing real-time feedback from frontline workers.

Zeljko Popovic, a leader within Tesla’s Autopilot team, is leaving for Embark, the autonomous trucking start-up in San Francisco, CNBC is reporting. The departure is a feather in the cap for Embark but another spot of bad news for Tesla, which has garnered mixed reports from Wall Street for missing some of its targets over […]

ndian startup Locus is helping logistics businesses automate truck routing to increase efficiency and consistency, while having more transparency into their operations.

Apart from creating visibility and transparency within coffee supply chains, blockchain can significantly improve livelihoods of coffee farmers by giving them a bigger share of the profit pie.

Dallas-based KoiReader Technologies has raised $60,000 in seed funding, Dallas Innovates reports. The money will be used to build the company’s artificial intelligence-driven automation and video feed data capture suite for the transportation and logistics sector. KoiReader showcased its product in May at Transparency19, a FreightWaves conference focusing on digitization and innovation in freight. In […]

Data’s role in improving operational efficiency within the freight industry is growing bigger, even as security concerns around keeping data secure is mounting.

Coord provides a platform to analyze, share, and collect curbside data.

The company launches today, with Walmart as a partner.

Apple is looking to buy autonomous driving technology startup Drive.ai, which might help the company gain ground against its bigger competitors in the self-driving niche.

CharterSync provides freight forwarders a quick way to source aircraft within the air cargo charter market.

Freightos will offer real-time quotes and booking on Europe’s third-largest air carrier as part of the company’s growing online freight marketplace. IAG Group, the holding company for British Airways and Iberia Airlines, said Freightos’ WebCargo is the first third-party platform to offer access to rates and capacity for air freight on IAG flights.   WebCargo […]

The technology provides a low cost alternative to GPS tracking.

The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s efforts to improve fuel efficiency in the trucking industry.

Oversize helps brokers and fleets save time that is needlessly spent navigating the complex regulatory landscape of carrying overdimensional cargo.

Mothership uses historical driver data and machine learning to “intelligently dispatch” trucks working the last mile freight market.

A report indicates that the EU is slow to adopt alternate truck fuels. Indian logistics startups are flourishing. Chinese logistics firms that help Chinese businesses relocate are winners in the US-China trade war.

Fullbay has created a heavy-duty shop management software that helps shop owners create instant invoices, attract technicians, and truly satisfy customers.

Zipline operates autonomous drones across remote areas that are hard to reach by road, airlifting medicines during emergencies.

Today on WTT we take a deep dive into the Idaho Hemp Trucker fiasco with journalist, Linda Baker, CEO Jacob Findlay has some huge news concerning FullBay, McLeod announces two new products, plus all the latest headlines, Big Deal, Little Deal, and the very first Comment Section Rodeo!

All this and more now on WTT?!?

Freight matching startup SmartHop has built a technology platform that helps truckers plan, search and book their loads in a fraction of the time it takes to sift through traditional load boards.

Amazon.com is the lead partner in a $575 million Series G funding round for UK food delivery firm Deliver

Einride has introduced a Level 4 autonomous electric truck that will transport cargo between a warehouse and a terminal in DB Schenker’s facility.

project44 has introduced two new applications that are automating shipment tracking and bringing visibility into siloed operations.

Cargo Chief provides freight brokers with a booking bot that gets carrier offers, counter-bids on loads and autonomously books load on consent.

Haven is introducing a track and trace solution that is both affordable and seamless to integrate within shipping workflows.

Two of the most-anticipated initial public offerings (IPOs) of the year have not gone exactly as planned, but what does that mean for other marketplace-style startups in the freight and mobility tech space? Ride-hailing companies Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) and Uber (NYSE: UBER), both high-growth and high-loss, turned to public markets to raise equity capital and […]

addvantage USA injects a specific amount of LPG in the engine air intake to increase fuel efficiency and reduce NOx emissions.

Market expert Brian Aoaeh explains why all of us should be rooting for Uber, Lyft and other startups. Read why!

After a decade of disrupting urban mobility, Uber finally opens up for its initial public offering (IPO) at the NYSE on May 10.

FreightWaves Radio’s eleventh national show was broadcast on Saturday, May 4 on SiriusXM’s Road Dog Channel 146. Unlike other industry-specific radio shows that often have particular messaging or lobbying aims, FreightWaves Radio is an independent, data-driven look at what’s really going on in the freight world, and the episode proved just that. Hosts Chad Prevost […]

Drivent is a self-driving technology company that is creating a suite of solutions that integrate with autonomous vehicles and provide exceptional user experiences.

If lab-grown meat substitutes for farm-grown meat and is commercially successful, it will lead to a drastic reduction in freight ton-miles.

On-demand warehousing company Flexe announced a $43 million Series B funding round on May 7.

The afternoon block of freight technology demonstrations at Transparency19 in Atlanta May 6 brought home the value of information technology in optimizing the basic blocking-and-tackle functions that could make or save money for many players. Each presenter had just seven minutes to show their offerings as part of the “Rapid Fire Demos” on the first […]

Dolly has raised $7.5 million in Series B funding, which is expected to expedite Dolly’s entrance into new markets and also help grow its operational and technical teams.

Kuebix has now integrated Emerge’s private freight matching marketplace into its platform, allowing its users to access broader truckload capacity for their shipping needs.

The raise adds to the flurry of activity that has hit the digital freight forwarding space since the beginning of 2019.

BlackBuck has raised a total of $285.2 million till date and is looking to expand its services across India, without worrying much into its growing losses.

Uber stands to gain by avoiding wage and benefit costs that accompany workers classified as employees.

Zūm announced it secured additional funding from new investor Citi Ventures to help double its national footprint by 2020

Transparency19 is just a few days away. Quick-fire demonstrations are a big part of the program; read why in this article, and if you haven’t bought a ticket yet, please do so!

McKinsey has brought out a report that talks about how increasing passenger density in urban spaces is a strong indicator for an increase in ridesharing demand in the decade ahead.

A panel in Blockchain Expo 2019 spoke on how blockchain solutions can be used for increasing transparency, profitability and provenance in supply chains across a variety of markets.

Waymo is setting up the world’s first production facility in Detroit that manufactures Level 4 autonomous vehicles.

Elon Musk has stated that Tesla would be launching fully autonomous cars by the end of this year, and that he expects to see one million autonomous Tesla cars on the road by 2020.

The trucking technology provider will use the funds to ramp up hiring, hardware investments, new  partnerships and advancements in machine learning.

The funds will be used to scale its warehouse robotics system, as well as expand sales and marketing in North America and internationally.

Datapace is the latest company to join the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA). Learn more about Datapace and BiTA in this article.

Uber is planning to sell 14 percent stake on its autonomous driving division for $1 billion to investment firm Softbank, automaker Toyota, and auto parts manufacturer Denso.

STORD simplifies the distribution experience of shippers by networking with warehouses and carriers, and providing shippers with warehousing capacity and transportation based on their needs.

FleetZoo is a delivery and service optimization startup that is solving the last-mile problem by providing a solution that lets companies optimize and visualize all their delivery routes in a matter of minutes.

LA caught between straits of labor and capital; group looks for ocean freight’s Esperanto; and digital-first forwarder gets $20m funding.

Nikola Motors has the potential to disrupt the freight industry by building hydrogen fuel powered trucks and by setting up hydrogen fuel stations all across North America.

The total amount of investment during the first quarter – $1.6 billion – is more than half of the $2.9 billion in venture capital invested for the full year 2018.

Considering that Singapore has over 20,000 people per square mile, it may be prudent for the city-state to consider air taxis as an urban mobility option.

Flowspace helps companies source on-demand warehousing space, allowing them to scale up rapidly and concentrate on gaining more customers, rather than stagnate with the burden of finding warehouses to stock products.

With this acquistion, TeleSense will help drive the automation of the grain supply chain and expand its footprint across Europe.

A recent article in Landline Magazine suggested that Truckstop.com’s new VC partner could merge the load board with Convoy or Uber Freight. This is unlikely to happen.

Not long after its IPO, Lyft is removing electric bikes from the markets of New York City, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco after reports of problems with the vehicles’ brakes.

Cocoa farming in Africa witnesses a lot of forced and child labor, which can be eliminated if the stakeholders within chocolate supply chains can have transparency on end-to-end operations.

WebCargo by Freightos has acquired India-based Air Freight Bazaar, with the intent of expanding its footstep in global air cargo digitalization.

Albertsons Companies is now part of the IBM Food Trust network, and plans to use blockchain in tracking its food produce from the farm to its store shelves.

The pending IPO comes as many experts are questioning the profitability of the ride-share model.

Amazon’s outsize presence in Seattle has yet to translate into a new wave of start-ups but that is expected to change as the tech giant’s relationship with the city enters a new phase and the region’s venture capital ecosystem matures.

Inxeption introduces Zippy Freight, a new service that helps B2B merchants get shipping costs and complexity under control and obtain flexible logistics options.

sennder has raised investment to expand its digital freight markeplace footprint across Europe.

Truck Parking Europe displays more than 34,000 parking spaces across Europe, and has over a million downloads on its smartphone application.

With new backing from Microsoft, start-up readies for technical and geographic expansion of optimization services for shipping assets.

Sabrewing Aircraft Company has developed an unmanned vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) cargo aircraft that is now closer to being a commercial reality, with it getting an order for 10 aircraft from the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI).

A digital logistics startup that helps trucking companies automate workflow has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Goldcrest Capital and 8VC.

Shipwell has introduced a digital loadboard for shippers and carriers, where shippers can bid on loads or instantly book shipments with a “book now” functionality.

Breakout List curates a list of startups that have a high possibility of success, thus making it easier for startup-inclined people to choose a company they would want to work in.

The momentum is strongest in developing countries, where concerns about pollution and traffic congestion are mounting.