- AxleHire — a logistics innovation company for last-mile delivery — announced it has raised $20 million in a new round of funding. These are the details.
AxleHire — a logistics innovation company for last-mile delivery — announced it has raised $20 million in a new round of funding. This round of funding will enhance the company’s capabilities to deliver a more seamless same-day and next-day experience through new sortation technology, an expanded network of locations, and more talent. Ajax Strategies led the Series B round of funding with additional participation from Eclipse Ventures, Quiet Logistics, Bee Partners, and Acorn Pacific Ventures.
AxleHire offers last-mile delivery solutions with a higher level of predictability, reliability, and responsiveness for various shippers, ranging from retail and e-commerce to fresh foods and perishables. And the company utilizes an asset-light transportation network to right-size capacity based on demand. Plus AxleHire also utilizes algorithms to optimize real-time decisions around customer experience and positions sortation hubs near major metropolitan areas to minimize transit times, blurring the line between same- and next-day delivery.
A year into the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become clear that consumers are dependent on new levels of convenience with expectations of same- and next-day shipping now the standard. Utilizing its recipient-facing technologies, real-time visibility, and physical hubs located near major metropolitan areas, Plus AxleHire has positioned itself to outpace legacy logistics companies by providing a one-size-fits-all solution for the next generation of retailers. The locations include Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle.
AxleHire’s founder Daniel Sokolovsky worked in his family’s courier business from a young age and experienced firsthand how the repetitive and manual coordination efforts limited scale. And as of 2015, traditional carriers were still using legacy software to compete with a new breed of on-demand couriers building their own technology. After studying Applied Math at Berkeley, Sokolovsky recruited a team of engineers to blend the courier and carrier models more effectively, introducing line haul and sortation components to better serve customers.
AxleHire had also started to explore clean energy partnerships with cities and local governments like Santa Monica’s City in Los Angeles County. And AxleHire is looking for delivery partners using electric methods to provide zero-emission delivery wherever possible.
Ajax Strategies partner Milo Werner, Greenfield Partners founder Eugene Gorab, and Eclipse Ventures partner Matt Mulvey will be joining AxleHire’s board of directors.
KEY QUOTES:
“Businesses need help navigating the new shift in consumer perception when it comes to delivery expectations, especially in a post-Covid-19 world. With this new investment from Ajax Strategies, we are primed to level the playing field when it comes to providing cost-effective, reliable same- and next-day delivery for a variety of shippers.”
— Adam Bryant, AxleHire CEO
“We are very excited to support AxleHire’s climate-smart approach to same-day delivery. Leveraging dynamic routing to consolidate packages across vehicles allows AxleHire to offer the most affordable and lowest carbon same/next day logistics services.”
— Milo Werner, Partner at Ajax Strategies
