- FourKites — a real-time supply chain visibility platform — announced a new $100 million Series D funding round. These are the details.
FourKites — a real-time supply chain visibility platform — announced a new $100 million Series D funding round. The growth financing is led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB, and Zebra Technologies as well as existing investors August Capital, CEAS Investments, Hyde Park Angels, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and Bain Capital Ventures, bringing the total capital raised to over $200 million.
This funding round heralds the advent of a new era in supply chain management where automated, interconnected and collaborative global supply chains — spanning transportation, warehouses, stores, trucks, etc. — are powered and optimized by real-time visibility data and machine learning.
FourKites had pioneered real-time supply chain visibility in 2014 and has since built the world’s largest platform that helps leading brands track their shipments across every mode of transportation (road, rail, ocean, air) and uses machine learning to predict exact times of arrival. And this helps organizations lower operating costs, improve on-time performance and create better customer relationships. The FourKites network boasts:
— 500+ of the world’s biggest brands, including 9 of the top-10 CPG companies and 18 of the top-20 F&B companies, and industry giants such as Walmart Canada, The Dow Chemical Company, Eastman, Meijer, PetSmart, The Michaels Companies, Land O’Lakes, Coca-Cola, AB InBev, Constellation Brands and 3M
— Over 1 million shipments tracked daily, with over 120% YoY growth
— 6.4 million connected facilities with 70% year-over-year growth
— 140% year-over-year increase in tracking ocean and rail shipments
— 450,000 connected carriers in 176 countries across road, rail, ocean, air, and courier
With the new investors, FourKites is now ready to fuel a broader vision for the future of digital supply chains — one that connects the physical and digital worlds of warehouses, stores and transportation with real-time data and machine learning. And recent supply chain disruptions precipitated by the pandemic have accelerated the move to real-time transportation visibility platforms (RTTVPs).
Last year, FourKites delivered over 120 new products and features, including a number of industry-firsts such as multimodal end-to-end purchase order tracking; Appointment Manager, an automated appointment scheduling platform for facilities, shippers and carriers; and a new software category — Dynamic Yard — that extends visibility into warehouses and yards.
KEY QUOTES:
“As the market leader, FourKites is operating at significant scale, and has the world’s biggest brands as loyal and growing customers. FourKites will continue to benefit from secular mega-trends, such as automation penetration and increased supply chain complexity. We are thrilled to lead this funding round as part of our vision to invest in companies that will steer the future of supply chain automation.”
— THL Managing Director Mike Kaczmarek, who will join the FourKites Board of Directors
“The increasing adoption of IoT solutions is ushering in a new breed of valuable logistics management tools that deliver real-time end-to-end visibility. FourKites has become a leader in real-time supply chain visibility by improving inventory management and reducing shipping costs to deliver better customer service. We’re excited to invest in FourKites to innovate chip-to-cloud solutions for the supply chain industry.”
— Carlos Kokron, Vice President of Qualcomm Technologies and Managing Director at Qualcomm Ventures.
“Real-time visibility will be a cornerstone for supply chains in the future. We’re excited to invest in FourKites as part of our vision to bring new solutions to market, improve sustainable transportation, and build the next-generation ecosystem of connected trucks and shippers.”
— Dan Tram, Investment Director of Volvo Group Venture Capital
“There is tremendous customer and vision alignment between FourKites and Zebra. Our collective customers want real-time visibility into their goods and assets throughout the journey — from the manufacturing facility to the end location. Investing in a proven solution provider such as FourKites extends Zebra Technologies’ capability to help our customers achieve asset visibility, and unlock new levels of performance and customer service. Tracking items in the warehouse or distribution center, as well as over the air, sea or road, and analyzing the options to determine best next actions, will empower our customers to better serve their customers.”
— Tony Palcheck, managing director of Zebra Ventures, Zebra Technologies
“This latest funding round, following a year of record growth for FourKites, validates our vision of breaking down the barriers across today’s supply chains — between transportation, warehouses, stores and siloed technology systems. We look forward to partnering with our investors to enable true end-to-end visibility and unlocking tremendous value for the entire ecosystem.”
— Mathew Elenjickal, founder and CEO of FourKites
