One of Chattanooga's fastest growing businesses announced Tuesday that its has raised another $25 million for future expansion.
Arrive Logistics, a freight brokerage company that opened an office in Chattanooga last fall and announced plans in March to add 500 jobs in Chattanooga, closed on a Series B equity financing, led by the company's existing investors, Lead Edge Capital.
Founded in 2014, Arrive Logistics has grown to more than 800 employees with offices in Chicago, Chattanooga, and Austin, Texas. In 2019, the company expects revenue of more than $600 million.
"We have doubled revenue for four consecutive years with our relentless focus on building the best team and technology in the domestic truckload market," said Matt Pyatt, CEO and co-founder of Arrive Logistics. "We have done this by utilizing data to hire the right people, investing heavily in their training and retention as well as focusing our technology investments on what makes our team the most efficient in the industry."
Pyatt said the additional $25 million will further accelerate the growth of Arrive Logistics, which was already planning a $3.6 million expansion in Chattanooga.
"Arrive Logistics is committed to driving efficiency and scale through automation," Pyatt said in an announcement of the additional equity. "The advancement of our proprietary technology will strengthen both customer and carrier partnerships and allow us to go above and beyond for our clients."
The latest capital infusion for Arrive Logistics is part of more than $300 million of equity capital raised in just the past year for the growth of trucking and logistics companies in Chattanooga's freight alley.
A year ago, U.S. Xpress Enterprises, one of the nation's biggest trucking companies, raised more than $250 million in a stock offering when the privately held company went public again. In February, Freightwaves, a new logistics data and information company founded by the brother of the U.S. Xpress CEO, raised another $21 million in equity to help boost the market value of the startup company to nearly $100 million. Also on Tuesday, WorkHound, a software company that provides real-time employee feedback to the trucking and other industries, announced it has raised its first $1.5 million in institutional seed investments.
The new investment from Lead Edge Capital in Arrive Logistics underscores the investors confidence in the growth of the freight broker industry, which already includes more than a half dozen other players in Chattanooga.
Lead Edge Capital is a growth stage investment fund with $2 billion of capital raised since inception with portfolio companies across the internet, software and consumer spaces – including Alibaba Group, Asana, Bazaarvoice, Duo Security, Spotify, Toast, TransferWise and Uber.
"Since our first investment in Arrive Logistics last year, our conviction in the team and go-to-market strategy has only increased and we believe they are building something unique," said Nimay Mehta, a general partner for Lead Edge Capital and an Arrive Logistics board member. "Our confidence is supported by Arrive Logistics' strong load growth performance as well as improved broker productivity and healthy gross margins."
While doubling in size every year, Arrive Logistics also has been named for three consecutive years as an Inc. Magazine Best Workplace.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.