Supply Chain Startup FourKites Raises $35 Mn In Series B Led By August Capital

Predictive supply chain platform FourKites has raised $35 Mn in Series B funding led by August Capital. The round also saw the participation of existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Hyde Park Venture Partners.

With this, Eric Carlborg, General Partner at August Capital, will join the FourKites board.

The Chicago based supply chain startup will use the proceeds to further its geographic and product expansion. The round brings the total funding raised by the startup to $51 Mn.

Mathew Elenjickal, FourKites’ founder and CEO stated, “Our goal since day one has been to deliver measurable value for our customers by reimagining the way technology can transform their global supply chains. This new funding accelerates the pace with which we can develop the next generation of predictive supply chain solutions.”

As per a media release by the company, FourKites has grown revenue by 400% over the last 12 months and is now signing large shipper customers at a rate of one per week. The company recently signed international deals with Unilever for supply chain tracking across Europe, and with AB InBev in South Africa.

Other FourKites customers include many of the world’s largest shippers such as Best Buy, Conagra Brands, KraftHeinz, Nestlé, Perdue Foods, Smithfield Foods and US Foods, among others.

Arun Chandrasekaran, Co-founder and CTO, FourKites stated, “The funding will further fuel the company’s plan to double its engineering talent pool and also build new teams by the end of this calendar year, 2018. We are going to be heavily investing in research and development, product & Engineering. This includes omni-modal tracking & end to end visibility solutions and our predictive analytics capabilities. We will also invest in our operations to help our customers realize value and be successful.”

FourKites uses connections to more than 4 Mn GPS devices and a proprietary algorithm to provide precise arrival time predictions and real-time recommendations. Enterprise shippers use deep analytics from FourKites to make immediate decisions that improve on-time delivery rates, strengthen end-customer relationships and optimize supply chain operations.

The supply chain startup, founded in 2014, has also expanded tracking coverage to Europe and South America, and includes shipments moving by ocean, rail and parcel, in addition to truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL), as well as real-time trailer temperature and condition monitoring. The company has also added robust analytics and benchmarking capabilities to provide shippers with actionable business insights.

As per the Inc42 Datalabs funding report for 2017, the logistics sector witnessed an investment of over $475 Mn across 28 deals in 2017. According to a report by investment bank Avendus Capital, the logistics tech market is expected to surge to $9.6 Bn by 2020. In India, LogiNext and Locus are some of the players providing such services.

While FourKites’ clientele is mostly foreign, the funding from this Series B round led by August capital will help the supply chain startup to expand further in Asia and South America as well as add to its range of prediction services, such as forecasting when customers’ trucks will be empty.