FreightTech leaders join tier-1 VC in accelerating Parade’s vision for freight

Last week’s securing of $12.7 million in investor funding shows that Parade isn’t just about raising money to accelerate its business; it’s also about building an investor syndicate of the best and brightest minds in both technology and freight to transform the industry from within.

The freight industry is incredibly complex and full of opportunity — but solutions are not always obvious. Parade has brought together the best technologists and industry experts to fundamentally improve how freight moves in the U.S.

The San Francisco-based, AI-enabled truckload capacity management platform announced Wednesday that it had closed a series A round of funding with a strategic investor syndicate that combines Silicon Valley with Freight Alley. 

Following the announcement, CEO and co-founder Anthony Sutardja thanked the burgeoning FreightTech community for its commitment to furthering Parade’s vision.

“We brought this extraordinary group together because truckload capacity management is a neutral platform that needs to collaborate with all industry participants in order to drive industry wide change,” said Sutardja. “These leading practitioners enable us to better understand where the freight market is headed and build that into the solutions we provide for Parade customers.”

Parade has brought together companies with leading expertise from across the logistics market: Rite-Hite Corp., Jones Capital, Redwood Logistics, BAMFi, and DAT Freight & Analytics. They’re joined by leading individual freight experts Jason Duboe (chief growth officer, project44), Shanon Hart (former VP product, MercuryGate), Zach Fredericks (Group PM, Loadsmart), Tom Caughlin (CIO and president, Jones Capital), Eric Rempel (CIO, Redwood), and Jett McCandless (CEO, project44).

“We invested in Parade because we believe that capacity management will transform the freight industry,” said Eric Rempel, chief innovation officer at Redwood Logistics. “Delivering on the full potential of capacity management is going to require the participation of brokers, carriers and their technology partners. This group of investors is setting up Parade’s customers to have access to these both today and in the future.”

“Parade has transformed the business operations of so many freight brokerages — including our own — and we’re excited to be investing in Parade,” said Caughlin. “We’re also excited that this consortium brings together leaders from across logistics and that this will enable every freight brokerage to benefit from capacity management.”

In addition to bringing in the best venture capitalists, Parade has brought together many freight industry heavyweights to participate as minority investors. Many are existing Parade partners, and as the company grows, Parade anticipates that more strategic partners will participate and accelerate Parade’s success in helping more freight brokerages go digital.