Convoy Incorporated, a provider of digital freight booking service, has secured $185 million in its latest financing round led by CapitalG, Alphabet"s growth equity investment arm. The series C funding round puts the startup"s market value at over $1 billion, with Convoy now having accumulated more than $265 million in raised capital.
For those who may not be aware, Convoy helps customers to connect with local and regional carriers and book freight trucks for shipping goods. Users will then be able to monitor their shipment in real time using the company"s mobile application.
Dan Lewis, co-founder and CEO of Convoy, said in a statement:
Trucks run empty 40% of the time, and they often sit idle due to inefficient scheduling. This is a drag on the economy, the environment, and the bottom lines of shippers and carriers alike. Convoy’s ability to serve our shippers and carriers with ground-breaking, innovative technology is already having an impact on these critical problems, and our partnership with CapitalG and other leading investors will accelerate this. We are very excited about what lies ahead.
With the new funding, Convoy is expected to grow its offerings to include the option to book multiple shipments, accelerate the processing of payments, and pinpoint issues in its customers’ supply chains using shipment tracking data, according to Lewis. He was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying:
There actually is a set of evergreen problems shippers and truck-drivers deal with. So beyond just matching [shipments to carriers], we’re going down that list of problems and we believe we can build technology that addresses those, too.
As part of Convoy"s partnership with Alphabet, CapitalG"s David Lawee will be a part of the Seattle-based company"s board of directors. T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. and Lone Pine Capital advised funds and accounts for the latest funding round while Convoy"s existing investors Greylock Partners and Y Combinator also took part in the financing.
Late last year, CapitalG also invested $1 billion in ride-hailing company, Lyft, giving a boost to the startup"s goal of increasing the utilization of its service. It remains to be seen how CapitalG"s investment in Convoy will help the company weather through the already crowded shipping services category in the U.S.
Source: Convoy via The Wall Street Journal