FourKites completes $100 million Series D financing round

Chicago-based FourKites, a provider of real-time tracking and visibility solutions across transportation modes and digital platforms, recently announced it completed a new $100 million Series D financing round.

This round, which brings FourKites’ total capital raise to more than $200 million, was led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, and it also had participation from other investors, including Zebra Technologies, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB and Qualcomm Ventures.  

Company officials said that, with its new investors, the company is focused on fueling a broader vision with an eye on the future of digital supply chains that “connects the physical and digital worlds of warehouses, stores, and transportation with real-time data and machine learning.” And they added that recent pandemic-related supply chain disruptions have spurred an ongoing shift to real-time transportation visibility platforms, with research firm Gartner recently predicting that 50% of leading global enterprises will have invested in real-time transportation visibility platforms by 2023.

Mathew Elenjickal, CEO and Founder of FourKites provided Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman with a detailed over of this round of financing, which follows below.

LM: What will FourKites invest this round of financing on?

Elenjickal: The funds will be used primarily for 3 things:

• To build more depth into our existing solutions, and to support our customers with additional resources. As we continue to broaden our customer base and deepen our presence in all verticals, our customers are asking us to solve very specific use cases with visibility. For instance, pharma customers are looking for new ways of tracking the condition of their shipments—not only the location—while other customers are looking for new notifications that alert them when their shipments enter high-risk areas;
• We will be aggressively growing our presence and Customer Success teams, specifically in Europe, Asia Pacific and India; and
• If you look at the strategic investors in this growth financing, we are now evolving beyond transportation visibility into true end-to-end supply chain visibility so that you know exactly what is happening in your supply chain, anywhere and everywhere, at any given point in time. We will be connecting the physical and digital worlds of warehouses, yards, stores and transportation with real-time data and machine learning. That end-to-end view is what our customers are looking for, and we brought on strong partners who can help us blend the digital and physical supply chains.

LM: What are the main benefits of this news for customers?

Elenjickal: There are several benefits.

• We Will Double Down on Customer Success: We’ll be investing in building tools and solutions to drive even greater value for our customers’ business. These will include new automation features, expanded machine learning and more advanced analytics—all to help them make better decisions, collaborate with their stakeholders and serve their vendors and customers even better; 
• We’re Pursuing our Broader Vision with Big Industry Partners: When we first pioneered the real-time visibility market in 2014, we had a clear mission to connect global supply chains with real-time data and powerful machine learning. With this latest round of funding, and in partnership with some of the biggest companies in the industry, we are thrilled to share our expanded vision for automated, interconnected and collaborative supply chains — spanning transportation, warehouses, stores and more — all powered by real-time visibility data; 
• World-Class Solutions, Everywhere: For many of our customers, their business operates around the world 24x7. To ensure their success, we’ll be ramping up our teams and resources to give them the best possible service, no matter where they’re doing business; and
• Massive Scale and Beyond: We’re now tracking well over 1 million shipments every day, and our platform—the largest in the world—is operating at massive scale. To ensure that our customers always get the best, most reliable service, we’re planning for 10x growth, and we’re investing heavily in platform speed, scale and security.

LM: What are the biggest competitive advantages of this funding for FourKites?

Elenjickal: For FourKites, this latest round of financing is much more than just an infusion of capital. It’s about partnering with some of the biggest companies in the world to extend supply chain visibility well beyond transportation into true end-to-end visibility to bring about the next generation of innovation in the industry. These partnerships are the definition of strategic alliance, where brand visions for customer satisfaction, technology, efficiency and everything in between truly align to create the most robust, innovative strategies to drive the industry forward.

Together with Thomas H. Lee Partners, who shares our vision for the future of supply chain automation; Qualcomm, the world’s leading wireless, 5G and IoT innovator, looking to create massive new opportunities to collaborate on the future of connected world; Volvo Group, looking to shape the future of transportation with its next-generation autonomous trucks; and Zebra Technologies, who is working to provide real-time visibility into assets from the manufacturing facility all the way to the retail store location — with these partners, and with our unparalleled network of supply chain data, we have the ability to revolutionize the entire supply chain ecosystem, and to drive tremendous value for all stakeholders along the way.  

Cardinal Health collaboration: FourKites also recently announced a global partnership with Cardinal Health, a distributor of pharmaceuticals, a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products, and a provider of performance and data solutions for health care facilities, which will focus on enhancing the tracking of medical equipment, pharmaceutical products, first aid supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) in transit to hospitals, pharmacies and other care facilities worldwide. FourKites noted that its tracking and analytics capabilities will help Cardinal Health optimize supply chain operations and enable a fast, reliable and frictionless experience for the 29,000 pharmacies and nearly 90 percent of American hospitals that depend upon Cardinal Health for critical supplies.