Private equity bets on Brazilian trucking

Load-matching start-up CargoX recently closed a $60 million funding round.    Brazilian trucking technology start-up CargoX recently closed a new funding round worth $60 million, according to a report from online news outlet Axios.
   Not to be confused with the blockchain-backed “smart” bill of lading provider of the same name, the Sao Paolo-based company operates a load-matching platform that aims to connect shippers with available trucking capacity.
   CargoX’s latest funding round was led by private equity investment firms the Blackstone Group and Hudson Structured Capital Management, along with existing investors Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm Ventures, Soros and Oscar Salazar, one of the co-founders of Uber. Launched in March 2016, the company already had raised a total of $34 million from earlier funding rounds, according to a November 2017 report from TechCrunch.
   Salazar’s involvement with the company has drawn comparisons with the now-ubiquitous ride-sharing application, but the truth is that CargoX is just one of many load-matching platforms attempting to increase efficiency in a highly fragmented trucking market.
   Firms like Matchback Systems for years have been trying to solve the age-old problem of empty backhaul trips — also known as “deadhead” miles — in trucking through the use of freight matching platforms. The idea is that if you can match a truck’s return trip with freight headed in that direction, fewer trucks will have to drive without cargo, thus increasing revenues for trucking companies while simultaneously reducing costs for shippers.
   Uber recently expanded its own cargo spinoff, Uber Freight, both in terms of its geographic scope and its operational focus, turning its attention from individual, independent owner-operators to multi-truck fleet carriers.
   CargoX currently only operates in Brazil, but the size of the size of the latest funding round has some speculating as to whether it might one day expand to other markets like the United States, where it would run into competition from existing providers like Matchback and Uber.