As part of an effort to help revolutionize and streamline the logistics market, Jones Capital is one of the primary private equity partners in the $12.7 million investor funding series announced by Parade, a San Francisco-based, AI-enabled truckload capacity management platform founded in 2015.
Parade said in their announcement that the strategic investor syndicate combines Silicon Valley with Freight Alley.
“Parade has transformed the business operations of so many freight brokerages — including our own — and we’re excited to be investing in Parade,” Jones Capital President and CIO Tom Caughlin told Freight Waves. “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.”
Caughlin also serves as a freight expert for Parade along with Jason Duboe (chief growth officer, project44), Shanon Hart (former VP product, MercuryGate), Zach Fredericks (Group PM, Loadsmart), Eric Rempel (CIO, Redwood), and Jett McCandless (CEO, project44).
The series A funding venture, led by Menlo Ventures, included participation from Jones Capital, as well as Greenhawk Capital, The House Fund, Oriza Ventures, as well as a number of undisclosed angel investors within the FreightTech and supply chain communities.
Parade CEO and co-founder Anthony Sutardja said that they brought the group together because their company needed to collaborate with all industry participants to drive industry-wide change.
“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,” Sutardja said.
Jones Logistics, a portfolio company of Jones Capital, was created in 1999 and currently has 423 employees in twenty-two states. It has experienced 121 percent growth and added $100 million dollars in top-line revenue to the business in the last five years.
The company which is a top ten flatbed freight broker offers innovative solutions in freight brokerage, dedicated services and third party logistics, so the capital investment in Parade was a natural fit.
Venture Beat explains that the service that Parade offers – pairing shippers to freight carriers like trucks and vans – is attracting a lot of investment in recent years. Unlike other freight-matching services on the market, Parade works with freight brokers directly, rather than with shippers. The company’s customer base grew by 500 percent last year.
Sutardja said that the company plans to use the funds to “speed up tech enablement for freight brokers” by expanding its current load-matching capabilities, grow its own sales and development teams and continue adding integrations with third parties to add more value to its customers.
Caughlin notes that the challenges of increased demand for trucking capacity due to the pandemic and the resulting supply chain delivery issues can also be drivers for needed changes.
“The success we’ve had in finding solutions for many different customers has made Jones Logistics successful, and profitable,” Caughlin said. “This gives us the opportunity to invest with those companies, like Parade, who are using technology to make lasting improvements in the logistics market.”
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Jones began as a family business with a simple mission: to help communities, provide jobs and enhance lives. Today, with locations in Houston, TX and Hattiesburg, MS, Jones carries on that mission by being a growth-oriented, value-added capital partner to businesses and management teams that share our common values and vision for long-term, sustainable growth that benefits all stakeholders – customers, communities, employees, and shareholders.