Project44 Raises $80M To Tackle The Supply Chain

Project44, a logistics startup based in Chicago, announced on Thursday it raised $80 million in funding led by Generation Investment Management and A.P. Moller Holding. Previous investors Goldman Sachs, Chicago Ventures and Emergence Capital participated in the round.

The company has raised $897.5 million in total since it was started in 2014, per Crunchbase data. The fresh funding values the company at $2.7 billion, according to project44.

Project44 said it has worked with 1,200 companies to manage their supply chains by collecting data at ports around the world and merchandise movement. Using that intel, companies can predict problems and mitigate risks or delays, or reevaluate efficiency in transportation and cut costs. It can also plug into other logistics technology using a suite of APIs.

The startup’s  data also enables climate-making decisions that will enable companies to reduce their carbon footprint. This is a necessary step given the European Union’s new carbon reporting requirements as part of its Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. And it’s not the only one — the International Maritime Organization has also reevaluated its carbon reporting strategy for 2023, tightening carbon emissions and forcing companies to shrink their footprints.

With  $44 million booked in annual recurring revenue, project44 is on a clear path to profitability. The company also plans to reevaluate the carbon footprint of the supply chain industry.

Love for supply chain startups dwindles

Supply chain-oriented companies such as project44 saw immense funding in 2021 when the pandemic caused massive logistics issues, clogging ports and leading to shortages in consumer goods and food. The logistics space was flush with $22 billion in startup funding last year .

Those supply chain issues have only been exacerbated by the war between Russia and Ukraine, and yet funding to the sector in 2022 is the lowest it has been in six years, according to Crunchbase data, with only around $9.6 billion invested year to date.

Project44’s funding is one of the biggest rounds this year so far in logistics. Michigan-based Lineage Logistics, a food storage and supply chain startup, raised $1.7 billion in private equity funding in January. Flexport, a San Francisco-based freight platform, raised $935 million in February.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

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