OneRail secures $6.7M in late seed financing

Last-mile technology platform provider OneRail has raised $6.7 million in late seed financing, bringing the total it has raised to $12.5 million since it announced the close of its series seed financing in Q1 2020, the Orlando, Florida-based company said Wednesday.

The company, which describes itself as a delivery orchestration and fulfillment platform, says the funding will enable OneRail to scale its business development, sales and marketing operations.

“This latest round of financing will allow us to build on an exceptional 2020 for OneRail where we were fortunate to rapidly grow our base of retail and distribution customers. Shippers are reporting an increased need to find alternatives in order to provide cost-effective and dependable final mile delivery to customers and end-users,” OneRail spokesperson Sierra Hack told FreightWaves in an email. “With this funding, we will also expand our business development efforts where we deliver detailed operational value assessments to retailers and distributors outlining supply chain cost reduction opportunities and new logistical options. We plan to triple the size of our team this year.”

Chicago Ventures and new investor Bullpen Capital led this investment round, OneRail said. Others involved included existing investors Las Olas Venture Capital and Alpine Meridian Ventures and new investors Triphammer Ventures (Alumni Ventures Group) and CreativeCo Capital.

“Our decision to double down on OneRail was driven by how favorably the market has responded to OneRail’s solution, acceleration of online buying, and most importantly the team’s ability to execute operationally in 2020,” Stuart Larkins, partner at Chicago Ventures, said in a release.

“Final mile is more important than ever before and consumer behavior dictates that won’t fade once the pandemic has passed,” said Paul Martino, managing partner at Bullpen Capital. “We like OneRail’s unique approach and we’re excited to be a key member of this new group of investors.”

Significant shifts in consumer buying as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted last-mile logistics stakeholders to improve how they coordinate among themselves so that they can fulfill deliveries efficiently and quickly. As shopping habits transition more toward digital shopping and away from physical storefronts, stakeholders such as retailers, product distributors and logistics providers have needed to adjust to this changing environment.

OneRail says its platform addresses this need by matching a shipper’s “demand signal” in real time to its aggregated network of over 120 delivery companies, 6 million delivery drivers and 65 parcel and less-than-truckload carriers. The company’s goal is to make final-mile deliveries as seamless and efficient as a financial transaction, providing automated visibility and event-driven notifications and controls.

Just last month, OneRail and project44 announced that they were joining forces to provide an end-to-end platform for complete visibility of shipments, from the manufacturing floor to the final mile. The partnership combines OneRail’s delivery-based orchestration and fulfillment platform with project44’s Advanced Visibility Platform into a Unified Control Tower, offering shippers a single source of truth for both inbound and outbound logistics, the companies said.

And in November, American Tire Distributors said it would be rolling out OneRail’s cloud-based platform across its North American networks after conducting a trial in 19 of ATD’s 115 markets.

“The largest benefit of this funding to our customers is that OneRail’s Delivery Orchestration Platform is well-positioned to solve many of the challenges that face retailers and distributors looking to improve their final mile delivery operations,” Hack said. “This latest round of funding will accelerate our product roadmap and third-party partnerships to support our current and prospective customers.”

OneRail is not affiliated with the OneRail Coalition, an advocacy group in support of the freight and passenger rail industry.

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Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Joanna Marsh.

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