Flexport, a provider of technology-forward freight services, has raised new money and added new leadership to its board, hoisting its valuation to $8 billion.
On Monday, the company said it raised $935 million in a Series E investment round led by venture-capital giant Andreessen Horowitz and billionaire
Michael Dell’s
MSD Partners. Canada-based e-commerce platform
Shopify Inc.,
which had been working to expand its own fulfillment network, joined the funding round.
Bob Swan,
a former chief executive of chip giant
Intel Corp.
who joined Andreessen Horowitz last year as a growth operating partner, will serve on the Flexport board, while representatives from Shopify and MSD Partners will join as board observers, Flexport said.
Flexport said previous investors DST Global, Founders Fund and SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund also participated. In 2019, the Vision Fund led a $1 billion Series D funding round that brought Flexport’s valuation to $3.2 billion.
The latest investment, at an $8 billion post-money valuation, “signals that the market recognizes the need for a tech-enabled logistics ecosystem that has the visibility and resilience to handle unexpected challenges of any scale,” said
Ryan Petersen,
founder and chief executive of San Francisco-based Flexport.
Flexport’s funding round extends a wave of investments in logistics tech startups amid a race to digitize operations at the center of the world’s supply-chain gridlock.
Supply-chain technology startups raised $24.3 billion in venture funding in the first three quarters of 2021, 58% more than during all of 2020, according to analytics firm PitchBook Data Inc.
The influx of cash is giving startups in the industrial freight sector the means to build out their businesses, particularly top companies that have already developed their core products.
Flexport, which arranges ocean- and airfreight shipments for retailers and manufacturers by using technology and a web interface that mirrors travel-booking websites, said it would use the new funds to accelerate development of its platform and expand into new regions and markets.
The company said its revenue more than doubled last year to $3.2 billion as it moved nearly $19 billion in merchandise for its clients across 112 countries.
—Jennifer Smith contributed to this article.
Write to Colin Kellaher at [email protected]
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