While many of the normalities in our world are still on pause, the supply chain silently and efficiently carries on – keeping grocery store shelves stocked and making sure packages and raw material deliveries arrive on-time.
At the core of this essential work is transportation and the logistics surrounding it – and like all industries, this one was ripe for technological disruption. Supply chain visibility company project44 is leading this disruption.
When we were introduced to the team behind project44 this year, we knew it was our chance to partner with a successful, sustainable, and impactful industry leader.
project44 is the world’s leading advanced visibility platform for shippers and third-party logistics firms. Its cloud-based platform enables organizations to increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve shipping performance for customers – which is why we’re excited to announce our continued investment in project44 through our part in a $100 million Series D led by Insight Partners.
Why We Invested in project44
An Industry Expert Leading the Way
An auspicious entrepreneur is a must for a company to join the Underscore portfolio, and project44’s founder and CEO Jett McCandless is exactly what we hope for in that regard. His experience in the transportation industry exceeds two decades, and he brings domain expertise from his prior roles at such companies as YRC Freight and GlobalTranz.
With that said, Jett acknowledges the need for a leadership team with a diverse professional background, and he’s brought in experts from other industries to help him grow project44 quickly and effectively, such as Dave Chandler (formerly of marketing agency Razorfish) as CFO and Tim Bertrand (formerly of Saas company Acquia) as CRO.
Bertrand, for whom we have a great amount of respect and have worked alongside for over ten years – including as an Underscore Core Partner – was the one who brought this opportunity to our attention, giving project44 a clear connection to the Underscore Core Community.
A $40 Billion Total Addressable Market
project44’s total addressable market currently sits at $40 billion – and as the company cements its global presence and expands its list of integration partners, we expect that TAM to increase dramatically and rapidly.
Our confidence in p44’s growth potential comes from its unbelievable success to date. Its growth in ARR, strong product margins and dollar retention, and impressively low churn rates all promise a strong future for the company – and its key customers are on board for the ride. In 2020 alone, project44 signed a record-setting 135 new customers, as well as numerous customer expansions. project44’s list of 380+ enterprise customers and partners currently includes BSH Home Appliance, Electrolux, DHL, Penske, UPS, Uber Freight, FedEx, JB Hunt, SAP, Oracle, IBM, among others.
“As we continue to access more granular data across Lenovo’s transportation activities, we are able to improve our end-to-end supply chain operations, improving efficiency for our customers,” said Renée Ure, Chief Operating Officer, Lenovo Data Center Group. “The real-time visibility enabled by project44 has been essential as we work through the pandemic — enabling Lenovo to pivot quickly to meet our customer needs while continuing to foster their trust.”
The company’s potential touches B2B and B2C transportation, domestically and internationally. As visibility into shipping and delivery date accuracy increase in importance for these businesses, project44 is helping its customers recognize and meet those expectations.
Providing Actionable Data to Partners and Customers
For companies around the world, the global pandemic shined a light on the challenges in their supply chains like never before. Many of these companies realized the need to digitize as many aspects of the supply chain as possible – particularly, the oversight of it.
Specifically, we were drawn to the sustainability aspect of the data p44 provides. The company helps customers achieve a reduced carbon footprint and by the end of 2020, project44’s transportation visibility products will help reduce over 10M metric tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to removing about 1.8M passenger cars from the road.
Additionally, project44 delivers accuracy and reliability in a way previously unseen in supply chain management. In 2020, p44 launched an enhanced, predictive ETA model that utilizes the data from more than three million past shipments to calculate a shipment’s arrival status with 91% accuracy. They’re also the only supply chain visibility and collaboration company with one seamless global and multimodal experience, with tracked shipments in more than 140 countries. These insights and reach allow p44’s customers to make smarter inventory, personnel, and shipping decisions, which reduces carbon emissions and keeps drivers’ and receivers’ time as productive as possible.
It’s no wonder why project44 was named by SAP as Cloud Integration Partner of the Year!
What’s Next for project44?
The company will be putting its recent investment to use on the continued expansion of its leading, multimodal carrier network across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. In addition, project44 will be dedicating resources to transforming the global supply chain with new product innovations, partnerships, and integrations. These initiatives will strengthen the company’s list of offerings, result in collaboration with more industry leaders, and help project44 acquire more customers.
To support employees during this growth phase, this Chicago-based company is also looking for an energized Senior Vice President of People to ensure talented employees are hired and retained. We welcome you to learn more about project44’s open roles here.
Cheers to the next chapter of building!
