European expansion efforts are going strong for project44

Chicago-based project44, a technology services provider offering standardized, secure Web service API (application programming interfaces) integrations enabling 3PLs and shippers to connect with carriers in real time, this week heralded its ongoing growth efforts in Europe.

One key driver for the company in Europe is its late 2018 acquisition of Nøoslash;rresundby, Denmark-based GateHouse Logistics, a logistics technology provider focusing on securely sharing data across the supply chain, with an emphasis on visibility of inbound and outbound logistics. That was seen though various metrics cited by project44, including:

• having increased its global reach to more than 300-plus enterprise customers since acquiring GateHouse;
• 20% growth in Europe, with a Paris, France office, which opened in late 2019, as well as several leadership positions that were recently appointed; and
• project44’s work with market leaders Amazon, Coop, and Yazaki

The new Paris office has accelerated the company’s growth in Europe, coupled with the company retaining various key hires for continued expansion, according to project44, with the company now staffed with more than 80 employees in Aalborg, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Milan. What’s more, the company has European carrier onboarding available in 16 languages and applications in 14 languages, which the company said helps customers quickly gain ROI visibility.

“Building on the GateHouse Logistics’s decade of significant success and expertise, project44 has continued to expand the European visibility market, delivering a seamless product and experience for our global customers,” said Jørgen B Nielsen, project44 General Manager of Europe. “As supply chains increase logistics and transportation operations across geographies, project44 will continue to expand globally and provide the coverage our customers need to effectively run their businesses.”

Nielsen was recently promoted to his current position from Executive Vice President of Operations and previous served as CEO of GateHouse Logistics. And it also announced several other new hires in Europe, including: Regional VP of Sales Mickael Devena, Value Engineering Director Jatin Garg, Head of European Marketing Lorenzo Stranges, and Strategic Account Director Marco Tarpi. Devena and Garg bring extensive experience in transportation visibility from their time at Shippeo, while Stranges and Tarpi come from global SaaS leaders, including DocuSign and IBM respectively.

Michel Stekelenburg will also join the team as the Strategic Account Director for the Benelux region. In addition to several roles in supply chain technology, Stekelenburg serves as the President of the Benelux Roundtable for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP).

When project44 acquired GateHouse Logistics in late 2018, Jett McCandless, project44 CEO and Founder told LM that said there were various drivers for project44 to acquire GateHouse.

“We heard our customers articulate their need for a global visibility platform that supports all modes and automates their entire global transportation value chain,” he said. “That is why we made this acquisition, to meet this need by enabling them to manage not only all their North American shipments, but also their European shipments from a single-pane, across all shipping modes.” 

project44’s Advanced Visibility Platform focuses on more than tracking, in the form of end-to-end visibility from the start of the shipping process to delivery (and beyond), as well as automation of key transportation processes, and also eliminates gaps in real-time visibility and powers users with high-quality and trustworthy Parcel, Final Mile, Less-Than-Truckload (LTL), Volume LTL, Full Truckload, Refrigerated, Rail and Ocean data.

And with GateHouse Logistics now part of project44, McCandless explained that project44 has the first truly global visibility platform that will enable shippers and third-party logistics firms to be better able to manage shipment life-cycles, improve shipping speed and predictability and reduce manual processes for their international shipments. 

“By delivering them a strong foundation for driving digital transformation of their global supply chains, we are empowering them to deliver exceptional Amazon-like experiences to their customers around the world,” he said.

Looking ahead, project44 said it will continue to explore additional international growth to deliver a seamless transportation visibility offering for global supply chains. And it added by partnering with leading global carriers, project44 has gained coverage outside of North America and Europe in Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus and will also begin extending tracking connections in Morocco. The company currently has more than $110 million in capital.