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Convoy, trucking startup with Bezos funding, raises $400M in Series D – Business Insider


One of the hottest startups in trucking tech just got a new stack of a cash.

Convoy, started by the ex-Amazonians Dan Lewis and Grant Goodale in 2015, just raised $400 million in Series D funding.

Generation Investment Management, a sustainability investment firm chaired and cofounded by former Vice President Al Gore, led the round. An environment-focused startup may not seem like a natural fit for a trucking business, but Lewis said Convoy’s overarching aim was to reduce waste.

A trucker trying to get in touch with retailers or manufacturers who need their goods moved, for instance, might spend hours on the phone or on email trying to find the next job. About 15% to 25% of the time, trucks end up carrying nothing — which has serious environmental implications.

There’s also the issue of detention time. Truck drivers spend 2 1/2 hours on average waiting to be loaded or unloaded, and they’re typically not paid for that time. In a study last year, almost 63% of truck drivers said they waited at least three hours every time they were at a shipping dock.

Both inefficiencies cost truck drivers serious money — but the leaders of trucking tech startups like Convoy say their products can slash those losses for America’s 1.8 million truckers and the environment.

“Reducing waste is this beautiful, magical thing because it improves the service experience,” Lewis told Business Insider. “You’re not playing telephone, you’re not misinterpreting things, messing things up over the phone. You’re fast, the computer’s going to respond instantly.”

Read more: Convoy just got another $400 million to fight Uber Freight for control of the digital-freight market. Its ex-Amazon cofounder revealed to us the next steps for the $2.75 billion company’s quest to dominate truck brokerage. 

Joy Tuffield, a partner at Generation Investment, which is a new investor in Convoy, told Business Insider that she started researching Convoy in 2016. Generation Investment has also invested in Ocado.

“Not only do we think that Convoy is an innovator and disruptor and is only going to become more relevant in the freight market, but it’s a real win-win scenario,” Tuffield told Business Insider. “It’s helpful for the planet, it’s helpful for reducing empty miles driven, it’s helping to reduce carbon emissions.”

“It’s also providing a fairer player field for carriers out there, increasing take-home pay and their earnings, and providing a better quality of service for the shippers themselves,” Tuffield added. “We love those virtuous cycles where it’s a win-win for everyone.”

Other investors in the Series D included T. Rowe Price Associates, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management and Research Co., and Durable Capital Partners LP, as well as the Series C investors CapitalG and Lone Pine Capital. Previous blue-ribbon investors to Convoy include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff.

Digital-freight brokerage, as Convoy’s sector is called, seeks to lessen the need for an intermediary when companies are trying to move their goods.

Companies like Amazon and Uber have opened digital freight-brokerage departments, while trendy startups like Convoy and Transfix are attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investments and big-name hires as they seek to digitize trucking.

ConvoyDanLewisConference2019

Convoy’s Dan Lewis at a recent conference.
Courtesy of Convoy


A Convoy representative said the company was valued at $2.75 billion. He was not able to share the details of how that valuation was determined.

That sky-high valuation contrasts with the fact that Convoy isn’t actually profitable yet — a similar tale to tech darlings like Peloton, WeWork, and, indeed, Convoy’s rival Uber. A representative said the company was profitable in major lanes including Los Angeles, Dallas, and Chicago.

“We forced ourselves to grow in a healthy way by concentrating our business on these lanes where we end up having really healthy economics,” Lewis said. “That was a change we made about a year and a half ago.”

With the raise, Lewis said the company would increase research-and-development investments. Convoy has 800 employees in its Seattle and Atlanta offices, but Lewis said he would consider opening another office to capture more talent on the sales and operations side.

Convoy also plans to invest more in its enterprise software solutions for shippers and carriers, including free tools to help small businesses. “There’s so much room for improvement that it’s kind of hard for us to see an end to the level of investment we can make from a technology perspective,” Lewis said.

Want to learn more about Convoy? We asked CEO Dan Lewis to spill on the company’s profitability, what he really thinks about Uber Freight, and how working at Amazon swayed his leadership style. Read the interview at Business Insider Prime. 



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