Investment

Coursing through the different segments within FreightTech, just as with cloud computing before it, are big bets on AI.

The story of venture capital in 2024 was one of resilience and green shoots, but also one of hype in which the big fish ate the little ones.

Target plans to add a half-dozen sortation centers to its U.S. network by 2026, bolstering its last-mile capabilities.

In the inaugural Moving World Report, UP.Partners dives deep into what drives today’s mobility industry — and examines what’s holding it back.

Managing the winter season

As the economy corrects itself, where does VC stand?

There is plenty of opportunity for innovative companies to solve for industry headwinds, a prospect that excites both new investors and existing stakeholders across the industry.

“One of the most remarkable asset plays in recent memory.” – Ship brokerage Compass Maritime

According to Bank of America and McKinsey, 10 years of expected e-commerce growth penetrated in three months’ time.

With TikTok, Walmart now has dominance in storefront and online retail — and social media.

The investment round was led by OGCI Climate Investments, a $1 billion+ fund that invests in solutions to decarbonize commercial transport.

Ford has invested $500 million in Rivian and participated in the startup’s $1.3 billion investment raise in 2019.

Cargo X is Brazil’s largest digital freight marketplace, connecting about 20,000 carriers and their 400,000 truckers with freight.

Shippo is a next-generation shipping platform for ecommerce businesses, helping them provide their end consumers with an exceptional shipping experience.

OneRail is a last-mile orchestration and fulfillment platform that consolidates the needs of shippers and retailers onto a single platform.

The startup plans to triple its team size by the end of 2020.

Aptiv’s Q4 2019 U.S. revenue stood at $3.6 billion, a decrease of 1% year-over-year.

California-based electric air taxi startup Joby Aviation has raised $590 million in its Series C financing round.

U.K.-based drone technology startup Skyports operates across London, Los Angeles and Singapore today and plans to be a leader in urban aerial mobility.

Shareholders of beleaguered U.K. trucking company Eddie Stobart have gone ahead and accepted a £55 million rescue deal that would help the company come out from the brink of administration. This stop-gap measure just ahead of Christmas will help Eddie Stobart save 6,500 jobs, ending several months of uncertainty behind the company’s seesawing fortunes. The […]

The new 40,000-square-meter center is the size of five football fields and has a sorting capacity of 50,000 shipments per hour.

London-based logistics startup tailored to ease e-commerce returns.

Venture capital investment in the logistics sector has seen a steady rise in the last decade and shows no signs of abating in the near future.

The shipping giant has teamed up with JDA to boost warehouse and supply chain visibility

Cummins Inc. closed its $290 million purchase of fuel cell maker Hydrogenics on September 9, the second major investment in fuel cell technology in less than a week.

Maersk is partnering with Indian digital freight startup BlackBuck to enter the Indian containerized trucking market for export-import logistics.

U.S. shale oil production might reach tipping point; U.K. auto industry investment is on the decline; Amazon is looking to expand to food services in India.

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

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.

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

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.

Tesla to raise $2 billion for increasing cash flow; Amazon has launched in Arabic in the Middle East; oil prices to remain high through the year.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

Fast Radius, a leading manufacturing technology company, has announced its Series B financing round of $48 million led by UPS, with strong insider participation from Drive Capital.

India-based logistics startup Delhivery has secured $413 million in new funding with Japan’s SoftBank leading the round.

Uber has confirmed speculations of its acquisition of Middle East on-demand cab hailing company Careem, with the company now becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber. The transaction is expected to be completed by Q1 2020.

Uber is in talks with Middle Eastern on-demand cab hailing rival Careem for an acquisition deal that is expected to be made public this week.

Kargo Technologies is an online freight logistics marketplace that connects commercial shippers with truckers across Indonesia.

Freight Alley in Chattanooga was the scene on the afternoon of February 21, when executives from FreightWaves, Nodal Exchange, DAT and K-Ratio presented the Trucking Freight Futures roadshow. Trucking Freight Futures debut on the Nodal Exchange on March 29.

San Francisco-based logistics provider Flexport is rumored to be in talks to raise about $500 million in a deal lead by SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC US: SFBTF), according to an article published on Axios Wednesday.

Zoovu solves issues that consumers face with massive inventory lists on ecommerce platforms, by asking relevant questions and displaying only the curated items that match the preferences of the consumer.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) joined with capital venture firm Sequoia and T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) to invest $530 million in self-driving vehicle startup Aurora Innovation according to Aurora’s press release on Medium.

Predictive supply chain visibility platform FourKites has tripled its revenue since its Series B financing last year, and plans to expand its team, add features to its platform, and fund its zero deadhead initiative with the $50 million it has raised in the fresh round of investment this year.

Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih announced on January 26 that the country is raising $426 billion in private sector investments, which will include roughly $36 billion for logistics infrastructure according to Reuters.

Desktop Metal, an additive manufacturing [3D printing] firm which specializes in metal printing, announced last week that it raised $160 million from a financing round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), a subsidiary of Koch Industries.

Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles Apple’s iPhone product in China, announced on Saturday that it has raised over $213 million for what it described as a “mega-development” in India.

Inxeption has designed the first blockchain-based e-commerce platform for B2B that catalogs and digitizes product information.  

Wheels, a relatively new entrant to the electric scooter-sharing ecosystem has raised an investment of $37 million, which further reinforces the explosive interest shown by investors towards this segment.

Airbus (AIR: EURONEXT) broke ground for its new A220 manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama on Wednesday. The newest airliner in Airbus’ product line, the A220 is designed to revolutionize the market for 100-150 seat aircraft.

Logistics startup SmartHop helps automate route planning and provides real-time dispatch advice for truckers, while also assisting shippers in sourcing capacity for their loads.

On-demand warehousing provider STORD has raised just under $3 million in 2018 and is looking to hire 20+ people in the Atlanta region to scale up operations.

On-demand warehousing provider STORD has raised just under $3 million in 2018 and is looking to hire 20+ people in the Atlanta region to scale up operations.

Investors are pumping millions into on-demand transit startups working in taxi-hailing and e-scooter sharing, but questions still remain if they can turn in positive bottom lines in the years to come.

Greenbriar Equity invests an undisclosed amount in Spireon, becoming its primary investor in the process. Spireon believes this partnership would help it with operational flexibility and in expanding its network across different verticals in the transportation sector.

China-based autonomous driving technology start-up, Tianjin TSINTEL Technology, has successfully secured $15.15 million in a Round A fundraising spearheaded by the CMG Innovation Investment Management Co., Yicai Global reports.

Money is flowing into trucking tech startups, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. According to CB Insights, the industry is on pace for its first billion-dollar year in cumulative funding. But the question remains, how much of this windfall of funds will end up in companies that truly make a difference in the trucking space?

Since the dawn of the shipping industry, brokers, carriers and shippers have struggled with rate price swings, sometimes due to conditions outside their control, such as weather or politics. TransFX, a Chattanooga-based company located in Freight Alley, is trying to help change that by offering “freight futures contracts.”