Transportation management platform MyCarrier has raised $8 million in a Series A round, the company announced Tuesday.
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The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company helps small and medium-sized businesses book and coordinate freight shipping directly with carriers. Companies can compare rates, book a carrier, and track deliveries using the platform.
“What we felt we really created was this frictionless platform that enables customers to do business directly with their carriers,” CEO Michael Bookout said in an interview.
Greycroft and Lerer Hippeau co-led the round, which brings MyCarrier’s total funding to about $10 million. Emerge CEO Andrew Leto also participated in the round.
Currently, freight shipping is a very offline process, according to Greycroft partner Will Szczerbiak. MyCarrier brings it online and tackles the issue of customer acquisition costs, since it gives the technology to the carriers, which essentially distribute the tech to the shipping customers they have relationships with.
“They’ve cracked the code, they’re actually being paid to have their product distributed to shippers,” Szczerbiak said.
A major issue many shippers face is tracking shipments, Bookout said. Tracking for small parcels has been mastered by carriers like the United States Postal Services and United Parcel Service, but there’s usually a lag for large, business-to-business shipments. MyCarrier is tackling that by connecting its API to all of its partners for up-to-date tracking information.
The new funding will be used to invest in the product and grow the MyCarrier team. Much of the team is located offshore, in eastern Europe, so MyCarrier will be creating an in-house development team in the United States.
The company, which partners with about 15 carriers, currently has 35 full-time employees in the U.S., and is planning on ending the year with about 100 employees. MyCarrier recently moved from a 4,000-square-foot facility to a 20,000-square-foot facility to prepare for its expansion.
MyCarrier is also looking to move into the truckload market and get into accounting services, Bookout said, adding that the company is also looking to acquire more medium and large customers.
“The key for us is when we design software for the small and medium-sized business markets, we know there’s limited resources at these locations so we want to make sure when they’re in this tool, it’s very easy to use and it doesn’t take two weeks to set up your accounting; it can be done in five or 10 minutes,” Bookout said.
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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