{"id":336957,"date":"2017-03-28T20:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1469529"},"modified":"2017-03-28T20:00:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T12:00:05","slug":"logistics-startup-turvo-emerges-from-stealth-with-25-million-in-series-a-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/logistics-startup-turvo-emerges-from-stealth-with-25-million-in-series-a-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Logistics startup Turvo emerges from stealth with $25 million in Series A funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Turvo<\/a>, a two-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company, is emerging today with an idea so ambitious that investors have provided it with $25 million in Series A funding to chase it.<\/p>\n

What it wants to do: connect people looking to have things shipped, which\u00a0doesn\u2019t sound so unlike what a lot of both traditional and newer\u00a0companies want to do. Turvo is setting out to differentiate itself in a number of ways that may make it a compelling longer-term bet, however.<\/p>\n

First, unlike companies like the freight-forwarding company Flexport<\/a> or the on-demand trucking startup Transfix<\/a>, which are\u00a0other logistics plays with interesting businesses, Turvo isn\u2019t looking to tackle\u00a0just one part of the supply chain but rather to work across its entirety. The idea is for shippers, brokers, and carriers alike to work together in real time \u2014 \u00a0using a software interface on their desktops and mobile phones that\u2019s\u00a0too simple and convenient to resist.<\/p>\n

Toward that end, for example, it\u00a0says its platform enables cross-company collaboration (think Slack, if Slack could enable employees to talk with employees of other companies about particular projects); real-time visibility (its mobile app tracks shipments from dispatch to delivery); and billing and payments (think digital invoices that can be shared instantly, and payments that can be scheduled).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Based in Sunnyvale\u00a0and with offices in Hyderabad, India, the 50-person company is led by cofounder and CEO Eric Gilmore, who was previously VP of retail products\u00a0Quotient (formerly Coupons.com) and earlier\u00a0spent eight years\u00a0at Microsoft, including as a product manager in Bing\u2019s search business and as director of communications for then-CEO Steve Ballmer.<\/p>\n

Though launching publicly today, Turvo is already working with a small number of companies with some reach, including Oberto Brands,\u00a0a company that makes \u201call natural\u201d beef jerky; Le Metier De Beaute, a high-end cosmetics company; the craft brewery Anchor Brewing; and the\u00a0logistics provider Service First Logistics (SFL).<\/p>\n

It expects to grow quickly, in part because\u00a0of its\u00a0transactional business model. Customers pay a fee per shipment rather than a monthly fee, making it easy for shippers to invite other users into the business in a frictionless way.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s also entering into a crowded, fractured, and, in some ways,\u00a0intractable market.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Gilmore likes about it, he suggests.\u00a0\u201cOn the one hand, we compete with the SAPs and the Oracles and the traditional (transportation management software) companies, but they\u2019re kind of part of the problem, too.\u00a0Logistics and ERP data is the last thing to the cloud. If you build a native cloud platform and people trust it, then you can change the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for on-demand shipping or freight forwarding companies? \u201cWe partner with and we compete with them,\u201d says Gilmore.<\/p>\n

Turvo\u2019s Series A funding was led by the private equity firm Activant Capital, with participation from its earliest investor Felicis Ventures, as well as\u00a0Upside Partnership, Slow Ventures and individual investors\u00a0who include Nest Labs cofounder Tony Fadell and Box CEO and cofounder Aaron Levie.<\/p>\n

Worth noting: Felicis is also an investor in Flexport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Turvo, a two-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company, is emerging today with an idea so ambitious that investors have provided it with $25 million in Series A funding to chase it. What it wants to do: connect people looking to have things shipped, which\u00a0doesn’t sound so unlike what a lot of both traditional and newer\u00a0companies want to do. Turvo is setting out to differentiate itself in… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-336957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}