project44 heralds $420 million investment

Earlier this week, Chicago-based supply chain visibility services provider project44 announced it received a $420 million investment.

The investment was led by Thoma Bravo, TPG, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, coupled with participation from Emergence Capital, Insight Partners, Chicago Ventures, Generation Investment Management, Sapphire, and Sozo Ventures each acquiring equity shares in project44 and resulting in a pre-money valuation of $2.2 billion.

This comes on the heels of project44’s May 2021 $202 million equity raise, which brought its market cap to $1.2 billion at the time. What’s more, project44 said that when combining these two major equity raises, the company has set a new funding record for Logistics Tech enterprise SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies, adding that these investments help to position it to help its customers optimize the movement of products across supply chains, delivering better resiliency, and value. And it added continued investments will be made on personnel, with plans to hire several hundred new employees in China, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Japan.  Another area primed for more investment, it said, is to nearly double its investment in product and engineering in 2022, with an objective to deliver improved real-time visibility across more modes of transportation in more regions.

“Today, project44 is helping companies solve supply chain challenges ranging from inflationary pressure and lockdowns to unpredictable weather and bottlenecks at ports. Our growth over the past year speaks to these macroeconomic tailwinds and the competitive edge we can provide to our customers,” said Jett McCandless, Founder & CEO of project44, in a statement. “With ongoing support from our investors, we can offer even more value to our customers and solidify our position as the global network that powers the future of the supply chain.”

project44 now has more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue, in tandem with a number of other notable milestones, including: more than 1,000 employees; more than 1,000 customers, and 1 billion packages tracked on an annual basis, among others.

In a Bloomberg report, McCandless said that project44 will invest this capital into various things, including: expanding its network, strategic acquisitions, and hiring product and engineering staff in nations including Japan, Brazil and China.

And he added that project44 has created a “connective tissue” for shippers, logistics providers and other stakeholders in the transportation industry akin to the global distribution systems that provide a conduit between travel booking platforms and accommodation providers like hotels. In 2021, project44 made three significant acquisitions, acquiring:

• Austin-based Convey, a provider of delivery experience management software that helps shippers connect disparate data and processes from parcel to freight in the last mile, in September 2021, for $255 million, the company’s largest acquisition in its history;
• Rostock, Germany-based Ocean Insights, a provider of ocean freight intelligence services (a purchase price for the transaction was not disclosed), in March 2021; and
• San Francisco-based Clear Metal, a provider of international supply chain visibility and predictive analytics for enterprises, also in March 2021 (a purchase price for the transaction was not disclosed)

project44 officials did not respond to requests for comment from LM at press time.