project44 announces $35 million in new funding

Earlier this week, Chicago-based project44, a technology services provider offering standardized, secure Web service API (application programming interfaces) integrations enabling 3PLs and shippers to connect with carriers in real time said it has continued to stay on a solid path for funding, having raised $35 million in new funding since closing a $10.5 million Series A investment of growth capital in September 2016.

When p44 closed its 2016 investment, it said the company’s objectives were to expand into new transportation modes and grow its product’s data intelligence and analytics capabilities. Roughly a year and a half later, the focus largely remains the same with the company saying this week it wants to leverage the new round of financing to power true supply chain visibility and deliver a faster and more reliable global shipping experience.

The company said that the $35 million in new funding was led by OpenView (Datadog, Instructure, Workfront), with additional investment from new investor 8VC (Wish, Oculus, Freightwaves), and existing investors Emergence Capital (Salesforce, Veeva Systems, Box, Zoom), eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s firm Omidyar Technology Ventures (Convoy), Chicago Ventures (SpotHero, G2 Crowd), and Pritzker Group Venture Capital (Cleversafe, Fleetmatics).

“Our goal from day one has been to create opportunities for individuals, companies, and communities by reimagining how to execute in a way that hasn’t been done before,” stated project44 CEO and Founder Jett McCandless in a statement. “We’ve sought out the best investors to accelerate our ability to help global enterprises turn dynamic data into transportation opportunities, creating a more productive and successful world.”

In recent years, project44 has been active in expanding its North American coverage to various modes like rail and parcel, along with its established presence in full truckload, less-than-truckload, and Volume LTL, as well as growing revenue by 446% in the last year.

Looking at LTL, the company has established itself as a major player in the sector. Going back to 2014, it has “maintained critical mass” in the $37 billion LTL market, with 99.9 percent of LTL carriers connected into their platform, which it said provides a level of real-time connectivity and proactive transportation management that in turn reduces the need for manual back and forth communications while saving time and money for all parties involved.

On a separate but related note project44 and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said today that project44 will be adding 200 jobs in Chicago and to accommodate that growth it will be moving to a new 40,000-square-foot space in Chicago’s iconic Merchandise Mart.

With the largest state-side engineering team of any logistics software as a service (SaaS) company, project44 said it is committed to cultivating Chicago’s global leadership in technology and innovation. And it said it will hire 100 new jobs within the next 12-months, and 200 by November 2019, estimating  estimate about 50 percent of these positions will be enterprise SaaS product and engineering-based roles ranging from entry-level to the c-suite.