Track-and-trace technology startup LocatorX announced that it raised $6.6 million over the last year, which will help accelerate product development of its next generation SmartTags and scale up operations across both sales and marketing.
The investments came from angel investors, taking the company’s total fundraising to roughly $10 million. LocatorX also added Kurt Kuehn, former UPS CFO, to its board of directors.
“Kurt Kuehn is a phenomenal addition to our board of directors, due to his unparalleled supply chain expertise and tenure as a leader at UPS,” Scott Fletcher, president and CEO of LocatorX told FreightWaves. “Prior to his CFO role, Kuehn was the senior vice president of sales and marketing and was also the first vice president of investor relations at UPS, taking the company public in 1999 – the largest IPO of the 20th century.”
Based in Atlanta, Locator X enables customers to track every shipment and equipment in real-time via its Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. This provides users with an audit trail of the item’s provenance, helping protect it from being stolen and counterfeited while increasing consumer engagement with manufacturers.
“Tracking and anti-counterfeiting technology have never been more important than in our current global environment,” said Fletcher. “The pandemic has created additional demand for location capabilities due to disruptions in the supply chain and a greater need for product authentication and tracking for healthcare equipment.”
Fletcher explained that LocatorX has been structuring its investment raise for a while, helping weather the storm of the current COVID-19 crisis that is making it harder for startups to raise funding. “We are well-structured regarding our internal operations, because we’ve been a virtual company from the start, with our employees working from their homes, using a variety of collaboration tools to coordinate and manage the business,” he said.
For LocatorX, the COVID-19 pandemic has reiterated the need for product authentication and shipment, as the country urgently seeks to produce and import medicines and healthcare equipment. LocatorX is also in discussions with manufacturers of essential goods during this crisis and offering them free or reduced-cost product authentication.
Fletcher contended that product authentication would help consumers validate the products they are buying – be it a hand sanitizer or any other product that is critical to protecting their health.
“Regarding our client interactions, for the most part, it’s remained ‘business-as-usual’ thus far, with implementations being the one area that’s slowed down as a result of our clients’ operational changes,” said Fletcher. “But, from a business development perspective, we’re continuing those conversations that will result in new projects kicking off as soon as the crisis subsides.”
Dave
Aren’t they about 5 years too late lol