Cambridge Capital heralds majority investment into Everest Transportation Systems

Earlier this week, Palm Beach, Fla.-based Cambridge Capital, an investor in niche supply chain leaders and the applied supply chain, said it has made a majority investment in Evanston, Illinois-based Everest Transportation Systems, a high-growth freight brokerage focused on over-the-road surface transportation.

Cambridge Capital said that this investment—in partnership with management—will provide Everest with the ability to stay on its path of expanding its differentiated platform, as well as capitalize on its large market opportunity, following 100% revenue growth and almost 200% EBITDA growth, going back over the last 12 months. Everest will continue to be led by its founders—Jake Elperin, co-founder and CEO, Lev Krasnopolskiy, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, and Phil Weber, co-founder and Chief Operating Officers—with the trio also retaining significant ownership in the company and also serving on its board. And Cambridge Capital Managing Partner Ben Gordon and its Principal Matt Smalley are now on the Everest Board of Directors.

Everest’s service model is based on what it calls a disruptive go-to market model, in which enterprise shippers can leverage the company’s personalized service, operational excellence, 24x7 responsiveness and access to a proprietary base of carriers for transportation needs of all types and for various modes, including full truckload, LTL, drayage, intermodal, hazmat, temperature controlled, expedited and volume partials, and a focus on stable, non-cyclical industries such as food and beverage.

“We invested in Everest because we believe they have an outstanding foundation for growth,” said Cambridge Capital’s Gordon. “We intend to fund their expansion in world-class technology, broaden their leadership team in finance and tech, and selectively add acquisitions to scale up even faster.”

And Everest CEO Elperin explained that based on Cambridge Capital’s expertise and familiarity with innovative technology, Everest will focus on improving its technological offering for its customers and carrier partners (the company’s carrier base is comprised of 15,000 carriers).

Elperin also added that Everest will amplify the expansion of its workforce to drive growth.

When asked to identify Everest’s primary offerings and benefits, Gordon pointed to the company’s world-class service, which starts at the top.

“Everest’s founders are available 24/7 and give their customers direct access,” said Gordon. “In addition, Everest built a global model that leverages a team in Kiev, providing high-quality, low-cost solutions. Customers gain superior service, and senior sales executives leverage the Kiev team to focus 100% of their time on what they do best. Everest has built an innovative platform that is uniquely valuable to its customers and its sales leaders. I haven’t seen anyone else like Everest.”

Krasnopolskiy observed that Everest has always prided itself on being responsive and offering a solution to difficult problems to its valued customers.

“We are there for our customer and partners 24/7/365,” he said. “We provide a high touch service model and go above and beyond to satisfy our customer’s needs.”

At a time when the freight brokerage market is very crowded and competitive, coupled with tight truckload market capacity, Weber said the company positions itself in the market to be fair to both its partners and customers.

“It is imperative for us to continue to secure capacity while helping maintain our customers’ bottom lines,” he said. “What that means is that we always provide options to our customers in order to meet their demands.”