The supply chain crisis continues to disrupt day-to-day life around the world. Whether you’ve noticed empty store shelves at your local supermarket or received a package way later than planned, it’s hard not to notice just how bad things are getting. Luckily, there are plenty of startups in the logistics space that are determined to push things forward for everyone, and investors are taking notice.
Supply chain startups raised more than $24.3 billion in venture funding in the first three quarters of 2021. Now, just about two months into 2022, that financial trend seems set to continue. The latest startup in this space, Flexport, just raised an astounding $935 million in fresh financing to continue scaling in the face of record growth.
The SF-based unicorn is now on the heels of becoming a decacorn after the fresh injection of capital sent its valuation soaring to more than $8 billion. The Series E was led by VC giants Andreessen Horowitz and MSD Partners with a strategic investment from Shopify.
The investment couldn’t have come at a better time. Over the last 12 months, Flexport more than doubled its revenue, according to the company.
“The global pandemic and the pressure it put on global supply chains has made the transportation of goods — something many people took for granted — a daily pain point,” Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport, said in a statement.
The investment, he says, signals that the market is finally recognizing the need for a resilient tech-enabled logistics ecosystem, one with both a wide scope and the ability to handle unexpected challenges.
Flexport’s software is used to arrange ocean and airfreight shipments for retailers and manufacturers. In order to make things a bit easier for the end-user, the platform’s interface mimics that of a common travel booking website. Without the need to dedicate weeks at a time to software training, Flexport hopes that its approachable interface can boost enterprise productivity.
Flexport moved nearly $19 billion in gross merchandise for its clients in 2021, according to the company. The unicorn serves enterprise clients across 112 countries around the world. Some of those clients include corporate big shots like Sonos, Gerber and Georgia-Pacific.
Following the latest raise, Flexport plans to accelerate development of its technology and expand to new markets. The unicorn also plans to mount a major hiring effort. Flexport is currently on the lookout for 79 fresh faces to join its team. The company is now hiring across its data, engineering, operations and finance departments, to name a few.
Flexport has raised $2.2 billion in venture capital financing to date, according to Crunchbase.
Additional investors DST Global, Founders Fund, SoftBank Vision Fund 1 and others participated in this latest raise.
