Loadsmart, a digital freight broker, today announced it has raised $21.6 million in series A funding led by Maersk Growth, Connor Capital SB and Chromo Invest. This brings the total investment in Loadsmart to date to $34.7 million following previous seed investment and a convertible notes round. The current investment will be used to scale Loadsmart's operations team while doubling down on product and engineering.
Loadsmart co-founders Ricardo Salgado and Felipe Capella
Loadsmart leverages artificial intelligence to automate the truckload booking flow in the United States. It provides instant prices to shippers with capacity guaranteed on all U.S. lanes. Through its automated platform, shippers can book a truck in seconds manually or integrate via an API to have a server-to-server booking with no human intervention.
Shippers have been able to reduce their spot exposure by 50 percent after integrating with Loadsmart, while reducing procurement execution time up to 90 percent. Carriers keep their trucks full and reduce empty miles as Loadsmart's machine learning algorithms match loads with their available trucks.
Maersk Growth is joining Loadsmart as one of its leading investors. Maersk Growth is the launchpad for new ventures at A.P. Moller - Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company. A.P. Moller - Maersk serves 343 ports in 121 countries with 18.3 percent market share in container capacity worldwide.
"We see huge potential with Loadsmart. Forward integrations between ocean shipping and over-the-road services can create incredible synergies and eventually provide a full service to shippers," said Sune Stilling, head of Maersk Growth.
Loadsmart also signed a strategic partnership with funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. ("Oaktree"), with a broad goal of collaborating in ways that are mutually beneficial to both organizations.
Emmett McCann, managing director and co-portfolio manager, Oaktree, said, "Loadsmart has a solid company strategy and exciting distribution plan. They have built an outstanding team with advanced technology that can be deployed alongside our investment portfolio to digitize and accelerate supply chain and transportation logistics execution."
Chromo Invest also joined as a lead investor. Marcelo Ferreira, managing director, Chromo Invest, said, "Chromo focuses on investing in companies leveraging AI in different industries. We have been very impressed with how Loadsmart leverages huge data sets to predict future outcomes and automate tasks. We're looking forward to scaling the technology and driving this forward."
"We are at our core a data company. With the highest ratio of engineers in the industry, we were the first to introduce truckload instant pricing and booking, and the market's first server-to-server autonomous truckload booking via our API. This tech-first approach has allowed us to set in place a fully scalable and automated distribution model," said Felipe Capella, co-founder and chief product officer, Loadsmart.
Ricardo Salgado, co-founder and CEO, Loadsmart, said, "Our strategy has been to focus exclusively on product development and technology. Now we are ready to grow. This round of investment will enable us to increase the business exponentially while maintaining high-service levels. It will also enable us to scale without losing the edge on innovation and technology."
Loadsmart is headquartered in New York and has partnered with several Fortune 100 companies. The company was recently named a Gartner Cool Vendor in Intelligent Supply Chain Execution Technologies by Gartner and featured at CB Insights' Startups Disrupting The Supply Chain & Logistics Industry.
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www.loadsmart.com