DrayNow, a Conshohocken, Pa.-based company that has developed an app and platform for booking and tracking intermodal freight, has raised $5 million in venture capital funding.
The company said it received the $5 million in Series A financing from two firms, Comcast Ventures and Osage Venture Partners.
Mike Albert, founder and chief executive officer of DrayNow, said the company will connect brokers and trucking companies moving intermodal cargo.
Albert said DrayNow grew out of the experience he and his partners have had running the intermodal trucking company TransNoble Logistics since 2011.
Drayage carriers are “kind of at the bottom of the food chain and there was a lack of transparency and lack of tools being given to them,” he said.
Dissatisfied with existing apps and believing they did not focus enough on the needs of truckers as well as brokers, Albert said he and his partners saw “an opportunity in 2015 to build our own product.” They formed DrayNow and after a year and a half of development launched the service last summer.
“We’re passionate about removing the friction and manual processes from this niche of transportation that has struggled to innovate,” he said.
Albert has spent 27 years working in the logistics industry, including 18 years at Penske Logistics, and a stint in the private equity industry before founding TransNoble.
The focus of the company is currently on the domestic rail intermodal industry, but it has plans to eventually work with port draymen moving ocean containers as well.
Geographically, the company is centered on the Chicago and Atlanta market, but is rolling out into other markets as well. The company plans to expand into about 20 markets in the next 15 to 18 months.
Albert said while his company is similar to firms such as Cargomatic, Uber Freight and Convoy, it is specifically focused on the intermodal drayage industry.
Jason Hilsenbeck, the president of Drayage.com, said that unlike his company which is just an online phone book of container truckers, “DrayNow is a broker. They do the transaction.”
Albert estimated that there are fewer than 5,000 carriers (some of which have many drivers) that are able to access intermodal freight, even through there are another 845,000 carriers in the country.
He said DrayNow will open new opportunities for smaller trucking firms that are interested in moving intermodal freight by offering them the ability to use DrayNow’s interchange agreement and bonds so that they are able to haul cargo from rail intermodal ramps.
DrayNow has 550 active carriers, and he says 82 percent have only a single truck, the remaining 18 percent, three trucks or less.
The DrayNow app will give visibility to the shipper so it can track the movement of the load. Drivers will scan paperwork with their phones both at pickup and delivery of cargo.