ClearMetal snags $9m in investment funding

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent Alphabet, is among the investors in the Series A funding round for predictive logistics company ClearMetal, which is already working with freight forwarder Panalpina and ocean carrier NileDutch.    Predictive logistics startup ClearMetal has received $9 million in a Series A funding round led by Prelude Ventures and Innovation Endeavors, the company said Wednesday.
   The funding, which also includes investment from NEA, SAP.io, PSA unboXed, and DCLI, will be used to expand ClearMetal’s platform, the company said. ClearMetal uses machine learning and analytics to help logistics providers, carriers, and shippers better utilize supply chain assets.
   The company has inked deals in recent months with the global freight forwarder Panalpina to better understand customer booking behavior, and with liner and breakbulk carrier NileDutch to address fleet and container utilization processes, in addition to ongoing pilot projects with other service providers.
   Founder Adam Compain got interested in shipping and logistics during a stint with ocean carrier OOCL and theorized that the industry needed to incorporate artificial intelligence to better utilize its expensive, but inefficiently deployed, assets.
   “ClearMetal has rapidly established itself as the category leader for predictive logistics by tackling the industry’s core data challenges and operational complexity,” said Gabriel Kra, managing director at Prelude Ventures. “Their granular approach to data mining, modeling and simulating presents vast new opportunities for supply chain players to operate smarter, more efficiently and with greater sustainability based on data intelligence.”
   The funding round is the first since ClearMetal received an early stage investment of $3 million in early 2016.
   The interest by Innovation Endeavors is notable due to one of its co-founders, Eric Schmidt, a Silicon Valley luminary and executive chairman of Google parent company, Alphabet, Inc.
   Also involved in the investment round is John Urban, a founder of the logistics software company GT Nexus, which was acquired by ERP vendor Infor.
   ClearMetal was one of four tech startups profiled in American Shipper’s October issue cover story, “The changing face of ocean freight.”