OneRail closes $9M series A investment round, bringing total raise to $21.5M

Orlando-based OneRail, a provider of final mile delivery services for enterprise shippers via a delivery fulfillment SaaS platform, recently announced it closed a $9 million Series A investment, bringing its total capital raise, to date, to $21.5 million. This round of funding was led by Ironspring Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on digital supply chain innovation investments.

OneRail officials said that with this round of capital, it intends to further accelerate the digital transformation of its customers’ supply chain, providing what it said is an even more competitive advantage in the marketplace.

What’s more, OneRail said that its $21.5 million in raise capital has come over the past 18 months, as it has expanded its team from nine to 80, and has 10X YOY revenue growth. It said these accomplishments speak to how the ongoing shift in consumer shopping behavior, coupled with the commercial demand to create a more dependable, modern, and affordable delivery fulfillment offering.

In an interview, OneRail Founder & CEO Bill Catania told LM that this round of investment is earmarked for a few key areas for the company’s future growth.

“When Covid hit, we had a tremendous amount of new business because everybody was re-evaluating their supply chains and how to handle the final mile and some of the capacity constraints and price increases, with customer expectations, of course being the key driver,” he said. “It starts with how there was quite an influx of business for customers we did have, which scaled up very quickly and so that put us in a position where we needed to increase our customer success or customer support vertical. That is the implementation of customers and the support of customers. That really is a key focus for us over the next year, to build that department up further just to handle all of the on-boarding we are doing, which is a good problem. As we are onboarding, we are launching and are scaling so then there is a support element, too. So, it is not only the implementation side, but then now we need to support these customers, keep them happy and make sure we are delivering on their objectives. Customer support is a huge focus.”

Another major focus, according to Catania, is technology and expanding the capabilities of the OneRail platform.

“We are doing more with AI (artificial intelligence)/ML (machine learning) to automate dispatch decisions, automating not only the selection of a shipping mode but the carrier and courier selection, too,” he explained. “And, so, as the platform gets smarter, our customers save money, and the end consumer has a better experience. We continue to invest heavily in automation and specifically around AI/ML with our algorithm.”

Another key component Catania cited was operations.

“Something we do that I think is very unique that a lot of the other software platforms don’t do is we are actually managing deliveries,” he said. “We have a logistics management element to what we do as part of our kind of 3-in-1 solution. We turn on a new customer and see another 10,000 deliveries. There are inevitably going to be more exceptions that arise that can’t be handled with technology so there is that human element we are proud of and is a key part of our platform.”

OneRail also highlighted its Logistics Partner Network, which it describes as a managed marketplace for shippers and couriers, which expanded by 4 million  annually. Members of the network include carrier partners such as Frayt, Hailify, Lyft, SkipCart, Epic1, Dropoff, DoorDash and others turning to OneRail to serve as or support their own fleet to scale their businesses, it said. And on the shipper side, it runs across myriad verticals, including retail, product manufacturing, construction, health care networks focused on augmenting delivery service levels.

“We think of it almost as a mosaic or a patchwork of different capabilities, different fleet assets and dispersing them geographically,” said Catania. “The worst thing you want to see is a 16-foot box truck delivering a two-pound parcel on a hot shot [spot] delivery. It is one thing if it is routed, but if it is a hot shot, that is a very expensive delivery. What our platform is doing is it is pulling together various key components: software that makes the decision on the mode and the carrier, or courier; the hand-off, which we refer to as a courier marketplace, and that is the supply. The way that functions is our customers don’t have to think about where their couriers are going to come from, because we have already aggregated so many across all different fleet asset types, from sedan all the way up through box trucks and even into LTL.

Being able to handle accessorials and delicate items, whether it is TSA certification or hazmat. That supply is critical and is a major source of friction, so not only can we make the decision, we can fully execute the delivery, and that is where that Logistics Partner Network comes in. It is not just all gig economy-related either. We have a really nice blend of gig and professional couriers, because there are different requirements for every delivery. Some deliveries may be only a couple of miles and one or two items. That makes sense to put in a DoorDash or Postmates or Lyft, but if it is a 15-mile delivery for eight items, then the platform not only decides it needs to be a certain carrier…we also execute it and track it and provide the whole customer experience around it.”