Logistics technology provider project44, which builds software that connects transportation operations in the supply chain, has raised $35 million in venture-capital funding to expand beyond its North American base.
The firm said Tuesday that the funding round, led by Boston-based OpenView and including financing from 8VC and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s firm Omidyar Technology Ventures, brings the company’s total capital raised to $48 million. The company said the funding round places project 44’s value “at over $100 million.”
The Chicago-based firm plans to hire 200 employees, adding to its current staff of 80, and expand its North American rail, trucking and parcel services into ocean shipping and the European and Asian markets.
“We want to go as far up the supply chain as possible,” said project44 Chief Executive Jett McCandless. The firm develops application program interface, or API, technology that links systems between various transportation and logistics providers, improving visibility for shippers and cargo handlers, Mr. McCandless said.
Project44 is one of a growing number of tech startups receiving millions of dollars in backingto tackle inefficiencies in freight and logistics. The investment is driving longstanding operators like XPO Logistics Inc., C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. and global logistics firm DB Schenker to upgrade their own technology.
The freight shipping industry is “ripe for change,” said Jim Baum, a partner with OpenView who is joining project44’s board of directors. “It’s an industry of people and companies who are operating, in many cases, in the same way they’ve operated for decades.”
The rapid growth of companies like project44 suggests that is starting to change. Research group Gartner Inc. says the market for supply chain management software could exceed $19 billion in revenue by 2021, up from an estimated $13 billion in 2017. Last year, project44’s revenue rose by more than five times over 2016 and this year it expects to grow another 400%.
‘A supply chain is unique from one company to the next—whatever their particular pain points are, that’s where the technology comes in.’
GE Transportation, a division of General Electric Co. , last month announced a pilot program at the nation’s second largest container port in Long Beach, Calif., to collect information on inbound cargo and share it with transport and logistics operators. GE Transportation worked with project44 to make the data—from shipping companies, port terminal operators, freight railroads and other supply chain players—available through a single portal.
Project44 serves a special need, said logistics-industry analyst Cathy Roberson, by addressing the connections between firms, where communication often breaks down.
“A supply chain is unique from one company to the next—whatever their particular pain points are, that’s where the technology comes in,” Ms. Roberson said. “Having that connective tissue to connect the dots, that’s huge.”
Write to Erica E. Phillips at erica.phillips@wsj.com