SaaS Platform Pinpoints Truck Positions on Map and Provides Real-time, Actionable Data for Shippers, Third Party Logistics Providers and Freight Brokers.
CHICAGO – FourKites, the leading logistics tracking platform that provides visibility and real-time location tracking for shippers, third-party logistics providers and freight brokers today announced the closing of a $1.25 million round of seed funding led by Hyde Park Venture Partners. Hyde Park Angels, Harvard Business School Angels, Bluestein & Associates and Otter Consulting also participated in the investment.
FourKites is reinventing the complex communication systems in the logistics industry by providing a cloud-based SaaS platform that allows for seamless communication and real-time collaboration across the various entities in the logistics landscape. The company enables shippers, freight brokers and third party logistics providers to monitor the exact location of trucks and the freight status based on data from Electronic Logging Devices (ELD/GPS) already installed in commercial trucks. FourKites is partnered with a network of more than 25 Electronic Logging Device (ELD/GPS) manufacturers in North America and is constantly expanding its ecosystem based on customer demands.
“There is a huge pain point in the trucking industry and FourKites has solved it. Traditional logistics tracking and communication systems are labor intensive and extremely reactive,” said Ira Weiss, partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners, who led the investment. “As transparency and real-time visibility become increasingly important in the logistics industry, FourKites is leading the way by integrating tracking data from over 90% of the nation’s largest ELD/GPS manufacturers to get real-time data on truck location.”
FourKites has developed a unique workflow that enables trucking companies to selectively share the location of specific trucks used by their customers. FourKites’ platform displays up-to-date information on the current location of freight and arrival times, eliminating the need for phone calls to drivers and multiple emails to dispatchers. Unlike industry competitors that use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or rely on driver cell phones, FourKites’ platform uses data from Electronic Logging Devices that not only transmit location information significantly faster, but also protect driver safety and privacy. It includes vehicle arrival time in addition to real-time weather, traffic and rest period information.
FourKites is also providing integration capabilities with leading Transportation Management Systems powering the logistics industry.
“With this capital infusion we will hire more engineers, roll out new product lines, and grow our sales and marketing teams,” said Mathew Elenjickal, founder of FourKites. “We plan to further expand our rapidly-growing team to 20 employees within the next year and will heavily invest in the continued development of our SaaS platform.”
Several Fortune 100 companies are already using FourKites’ platform and are seeing immediate returns through better customer service, a decrease in phone calls, reduced detention, loading, unloading times and streamlined distribution center operations.
FourKites is a 2013 graduate of the Pritzker Group Venture Fellows (PGVF) program that provides funding and company building resources to student entrepreneurs. “Pritzker Group played a critical role by refining our go-to market strategy and introducing us to several Fortune 100 companies who provided invaluable feedback by piloting our platform,” said Elenjickal, who graduated from the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management in 2014.
About FourKites:
Headquartered in Chicago and founded in 2012 by Mathew Elenjickal and Arun Chandrasekaran, FourKites is the leading logistics tracking platform that provides visibility and real-time location tracking for shippers, freight brokers and third-party logistics providers. Learn more at http://fourkites.com.
