aifleet, which is the industry’s first full-stack and scalable carrier utilizing AI to humanize trucking, announced today it had raised a $16.6 million Series B funding round led by Tom Williams at Heron Rock, with participation from Volvo Group Venture Capital, Obvious Ventures, Ibex Investors, Compound, Winthrop Square, and Cooley. With this funding round, the company has raised nearly $50 million.
Aifleet’s proprietary AI and technology optimize route and load planning in real-time, making scheduling more efficient, reducing cost per mile, and sustainably reducing the number of trucks needed on the road. This is done all while treating drivers better and keeping them well paid with a profitable way of going home every week.
By creating the first scalable trucking fleet and end-to-end automation, aifleet is able to generate over 40% higher utilization than the industry average, driving a fivefold increase in operating profit compared to big carriers. And the company’s AI manages 20 quintillion permutations per truck per week, equaling 250K loads per week and $20 billion in orders per year.
For customers whose freight they ship, the company provides efficiency with better service, which includes more visibility into where loads are at any given time, more capacity so customers do not need to rely on multiple carriers, and AI that responds automatically to any customer inquiries. And Aifleet’s own drivers and its customers’ drivers benefit with better pay and a more humanized experience. Since plans and loads are optimized, long-haul trips away from home aren’t necessary.
With the new funding round, aifleet will fuel its technology R&D, grow its operations team to support the fleet at scale, grow its sales organization, and further develop scalable infrastructure and processes.
KEY QUOTES:
“The Full Truckload Market Size is $400 billion, but it’s a massively inefficient and fragmented market with half a million carriers, where even the biggest has less than 1% of the market. As truck utilization has trended downward since 2018, aifleet has developed technology to mitigate the utilization problem and the strain created by the trucker shortage and to radically improve trucking efficiencies, while bringing real humanity back to the driver experience.”
“The U.S. full-truckload (FTL) market size is $400 billion, but it’s a massively inefficient and fragmented market with half a million carriers, where even the biggest has less than 1% of the market. As truck utilization has trended downward since 2018, aifleet has developed technology to mitigate the utilization problem to radically improve trucking efficiencies, while bringing real humanity back to the driver experience. We are excited about Volvo’s investment and we are looking forward to continuing to leverage our technology to create a more sustainable fleet and industry.”
“We are all in on truly disrupting the trucking industry with our unique AI technology, and that’s leading to better outcomes for all — a better experience for drivers, a better impact on the economy, and a better impact on the environment — all in service of our purpose, to humanize trucking”
– Marc El Khoury, co-founder and CEO of aifleet
“We’re excited about the opportunity to collaborate with aifleet. The Volvo Group is committed to driving innovation and more sustainable transportation solutions, and it’s clear that aifleet, leveraging their unique technology, shares our ambition.”
– Stephen Roy, Chairman of Volvo Group North America and President of Mack Trucks
“aifleet is addressing inefficiencies in the trucking industry in a differentiated manner, building technology and proving out its capabilities through their own fleet operations. Not only are they increasing the utilization of the trucks on the road but also making sure drivers have an optimized working environment.”
– Joe Darcy, Investor at Volvo Group Venture Capital
“AIfleet is positioned to become America’s largest and most profitable truckload carrier. In just four short years, AIfleet’s powerful AI algorithms and proprietary tech stack deployed across every aspect of carrier operations have far-exceeded what we even thought was possible when first investing. aifleet is the first company to achieve tech-driven economies of scale: the more the company grows, the lower its cost per mile. In fact, we expect they will be profitable within this round of funding. Aifleet’s model is not only a great business model financially, but the right one in how they use their technology to pay drivers more, send them home more often, and reduce emissions. With this approach aifleet is positioned to become America’s largest and most profitable truckload carrier.”
– Tom Williams, General Partner, Heron Rock