FourKites raises $35 M from August Capital and others

The startup will use the funds to further fuel its plans to double its engineering talent pool and also build new teams by the end of 2018.

Predictive supply chain startup FourKites raised $35 million in a funding round led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm August Capital. Existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Hyde Park Venture Partners also participated in the funding round. With this round, Eric Carlborg, General Partner at August Capital, will join the FourKites board.

FourKites is based in Chicago, and has its research and development centre in Chennai. The company was founded in 2014 by Mathew Elenjickal and Arun Chandrasekaran, who is also the CTO of the company.

FourKites uses a proprietary algorithm to determine and analyse shipment arrival times, thus facilitating customers to lower operating costs, improve on-time performance, and other range of benefits. A host of companies across sectors such as retail, manufacturing and shipping use FourKites’ software solutions.

The company recently signed international deals with Unilever for supply chain tracking across Europe, and with AB InBev in South Africa. Other FourKites customers include many of the world’s largest shippers – Best Buy, Conagra Brands, Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Perdue Foods, Smithfield Foods and US Foods, among others.

Riding on the wave of ecommerce boom, several logistics companies and retailers are investing heavily in shipment tracking technology to track shipments, optimise routes, and shorten delivery times. FourKites competes with Locus and LogiNext in India.

Co-founder Arun said, “The funding will further fuel the company’s plan to double its engineering talent pool and also build new teams by the end of this calendar year, 2018. We are going to be heavily investing in research and development, product and engineering. This includes omni-modal tracking and end to end visibility solutions and our predictive analytics capabilities. We will also invest in our operations to help our customers realise value and be successful.”

Mathew said, “Our goal since day one has been to deliver measurable value for our customers by reimagining the way technology can transform their global supply chains. This new funding accelerates the pace with which we can develop the next generation of predictive supply chain solutions.”

“Predictive technology is rapidly becoming an integral component of supply chain execution, as companies recognise its enormous value,” said Eric Carlborg.