FourKites has secured $50 million in its latest funding round to fuel growth of its real-time visibility network for shippers and carriers. The Series C round was led by existing investors August Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, CEAS Investments and Hyde Park Angels. The funding brings FourKites' total capital raised to $100.5 million.
"FourKites gives us comprehensive data visibility in a simplified platform that allows us to quickly and effectively manage our shipments in transit," says Jason Wicklund, supply chain leader at Land O'Lakes. "As our partnership with FourKites grows, we look forward to leveraging the predictive analytics tools available to unlock additional capacity in a challenging marketplace. This will allow us to be more collaborative with our customers and vendors in a fragmented and complex supply chain."
The company will use the funding to expand its supply chain platform with new applications and capabilities, grow its global network of top shippers and carriers and extend its "zero deadhead" initiative to help shippers share unused truck capacity. Currently, FourKites tracks shipments in 55 countries worldwide, helping top shippers and carriers collaborate based on real-time data across the globe.
“We believe in a future where every supply chain is collaborative, intelligent and networked,” says Mathew Elenjickal, founder and CEO of FourKites. “Predictive intelligence helps shippers find new ways to reduce costs, improve service and drive innovation. This comes at a critical time for the industry, as it responds to changing customer expectations, government regulations and cost pressures. As we move into 2019, we’re excited to add more shippers, more carriers and more value to the FourKites network to help accelerate the industry’s transformation.”
With its "zero deadhead" initiative, FourKites aims to help shippers share unused truck capacity that is powered by a new predictive capacity management product that matches shipments with available capacity. By sharing capacity, companies can reduce 15 to 20 percent of shipping costs by tapping into unused truck capacity through private networks, based on the real-time visibility and artificial intellgience matching provided by the FourKites platform. By comparison, traditional matching technologies and load boards operate based on stale historical data, resulting in nearly 40 percent of trucks on the road driving empty at any given time.
“FourKites’ growth has been remarkable, fueled by a strong product, focused leadership and an amazing customer base,” says Ajay Agarwal, partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “The fast market adoption speaks to even more opportunity ahead as FourKites becomes an essential platform for supply chain leaders. As the network grows, the predictive capabilities get stronger – enabling more ways to optimize and transform supply chains for the future.”
