project44 Secures $45M in Funding to Expand its Advanced Visibility Platform

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--project44 (p44), the leader in advanced visibility for shippers and third-party logistics firms, today announced it has completed a financing round of $45 million led by Sapphire Ventures, a leading venture capital firm that partners with category-leading growth technology companies, with additional investment from new investor Insight Venture Partners and participation from existing investors 8VC, Chicago Ventures, Emergence Capital, Omidyar Technology Ventures, OpenView Venture Partners, and Pritzker Group Venture Capital. Kevin Diestel, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, will join the company’s Board of Directors.

The proceeds will be used to reinforce project44’s success as the fastest-growing vendor in the transportation visibility market, fund continued growth in North America, support new product initiatives in advanced visibility, and drive international expansion. This brings the total capital invested in the company to over $90M.

In just three years since launching its first product, the company has rapidly expanded its advanced visibility platform to keep pace with the growing needs of customers who require accurate, predictive visibility for all transportation modes across all geographies.

“project44 will not merely participate in this newly developed visibility category, but will define, grow and lead it,” said Kevin Diestel, Partner at Sapphire Ventures. “p44 is bringing to the shipping and logistics space what Stripe brought to payments, Twilio brought to communications, and Mulesoft brought to SaaS applications. We invested because we believe that Jett and his team have distinguished themselves as the leading visibility platform and have both the vision and positioning to continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

“We have an amazing opportunity, fantastic customers, talented team, and are the fastest-growing company in the space,” said Jett McCandless, CEO and Founder of project44. “We’re thrilled to add Sapphire Ventures and Insight Venture Partners to our other world-class investors who share our customer-centric approach, and we look to leverage their deep operational expertise as we continue the process of building an industry-defining company that connects the world’s entire transportation ecosystem in the most productive way possible.”

In its most recent quarter, p44 experienced record growth, including sales to manufactures, retailers, ecommerce providers, distributors, freight forwarders, 3PLs, TMS providers, and fast-growing start-ups. Uline, a leading North American distributor of shipping, industrial and packaging materials, is one such customer leveraging project44 to improve the delivery experience, reduce transportation costs, and make more data-driven decisions.

“Uline believes that a fully transparent, proactive and connected supply chain provides the foundation for a differentiated and exceptional customer experience,” commented Angelo Ventrone, Vice President of Logistics at Uline. “In today’s market there are many solutions available, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction regarding new technology. During our evaluations, it was very clear that project44 provided the most accurate and scalable solution. Their platform has already made a significant impact on our business, and we look forward to continuing to partner with their team to unearth new opportunities as we further modernize and digitize our operations.”

To learn more or schedule a demo, visit project44.com or contact the p44 team at 1-312-376-8883. The company is also exhibiting and speaking at CSCMP's Annual Global Conference September 30 through October 3, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. Stop by Booth #209 to see project44 in action and discover how supply chain leaders are using p44 to transform their business.

About project44

project44 is the world’s leading advanced visibility platform for shippers and third-party logistics firms. project44 connects, automates and provides visibility into key transportation processes to accelerate insights and shorten the time it takes to turn those insights into actions. Leveraging the power of the project44 cloud-based platform, organizations are able to increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, improve shipping performance, and deliver an exceptional Amazon-like experience to their customers. Connected to over 175,000 carriers worldwide and having comprehensive coverage for all ELD and telematics devices on the market, project44 supports all transportation modes and shipping types, including Parcel, Final-Mile, Less-than-Truckload, Volume Less-than-Truckload, Truckload, Rail, Intermodal, and Ocean. To learn more, visit www.project44.com.

About Sapphire Ventures

Sapphire Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on helping innovative technology companies become global category leaders. Leveraging nearly two decades of experience and an extensive global enterprise network, Sapphire Ventures invests capital, resources and expertise to enable its portfolio companies to scale rapidly. Whether entrepreneurs sell to businesses, consumers or both, Sapphire Ventures offers a powerful platform for business development and operational excellence to help them accelerate growth. With $2.5 billion under management via direct growth investments and early-stage fund investments, Sapphire Ventures is positioned to elevate companies to the global stage. To learn more, visit www.sapphireventures.com.