Logistics data and analytics provider FreightWaves has raised $13 million in venture funding and will use the resources to accelerate its hiring and expand into markets outside the U.S., the firm said Tuesday.
The investment round was led by the venture capital firm 8VC, which recently created a $640 million fund dedicated to the logistics field. Additional investments by that fund include the freight tech startups project44, Platform Science, and LoadDocs. Other contributions to FreightWaves' latest funding came from the firms Breakthrough Fuel, Hunt Technology Ventures, and Engage Ventures.
The investment brings total funding for Chattanooga, Tenn.-based FreightWaves to $18.4 million. The firm's products help clients to interpret data, helping them understand and forecast changes in the freight market, FreightWaves says. Those insights can help freight brokers set prices more accurately, carriers improve routing decisions and benchmarking, and shippers project capacity availability, the firm says.
The company also plans to launch a freight futures contracts product in late 2018 that will allow users to trade non-contract, or "spot," truckload rates. In addition, FreightWaves founded the logistics technology trade group Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), which supports the use of data-sharing software in logistics.
Stocked with the additional capital, FreightWaves plans to expand hiring in its data and analytics division, enter markets outside of the U.S. for its surface transportation analytics products, and delve deeper into predictive analytics elements and dashboard products, FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller said in an email.
