Newtrul Raises Seed Round Led by Autotech Ventures to Fuel the Next Generation of Logistics Marketplaces

CHICAGO, IL., Jan 27, 2021 – Newtrul, a digital freight aggregation platform today announced its Seed Series raise of $2.25 million.  The capital will allow newtrul to enhance its proprietary technology to drive additional supply-side acquisition of carriers and reduce time to onboard demand side clients such as shippers and brokers.

Newtrul’s platform streamlines the fragmented and inefficient process of truckload freight matching by digitizing and aggregating it into a spot marketplace that connects carriers with shippers and brokers.  The platform integrates with transport management systems (TMS) to seamlessly ingest shipment data, making it searchable and accessible. 

The round was led by Autotech Ventures with participation from I2BF, Fission Ventures, and Plug and Play Ventures and follows recent announcements of integrations with two major TMS providers – McLeod and MercuryGate.  Autotech Ventures has deep domain expertise and a successful track record with both domestic trucking and building marketplaces.

Freight brokers and shippers have seen an increase in load volume and tender rejections in the domestic full truckload market, driving demand for newtrul’s platform.  The technology not only delivers meaningful capacity but increases efficiency and decreases costs related to capacity procurement operations. The value is even clearer for entities who have multiple entity types, such as a shipper with a private fleet, or a carrier with a brokerage.  

“Newtrul represents the next generation of logistics marketplaces, embracing a fundamentally different approach of ‘neutrality’ in the way in which it connects carriers with loads from a variety of sources,” says Daniel Hoffer, Managing Director of Autotech Ventures. “Ed and his team are well positioned to meet their customers’ needs in making available the largest collection of bookable shipments. They have a deep understanding of the industry, and we are excited to support their efforts to transform it to create more value for all participants.”

Platform clients enjoy the benefits of streamlined operations immediately upon deployment. “Newtrul is a phenomenal efficiency tool that lowers the cost to serve,” said Joe Gramc, CFO at Five Star Trucking. “As an asset-based brokerage, we understand the complexities of the transaction for both sides. Newtrul does a great job of removing the nonsense so we can focus on execution and providing great service to our clients.”

“The partnerships we have, and continue to establish, uniquely position newtrul to be the largest source of live, digitally bookable shipments in the industry,” said newtrul CEO Ed Stockman. “We were targeting a lead investor who understands the nuances of the industry while being intimately familiar with digital marketplaces, and we were successful in accomplishing that goal. Autotech's limited partner (LP) base is incredibly familiar with the space and helped validate Autotech’s domain expertise. Combine that with Daniel’s [Hoffer, Managing Director of Autotech Ventures] marketplace background, and we quickly knew they would make an invaluable addition to our team.”

About newtrul

newtrul is a leading freight marketplace for truckload shipping in North America. Through integrations with clients, newtrul aggregates shipment data and provides a metasearch engine for carriers to search, bid and book loads. newtrul is no-cost to carriers and is funded by successfully booked transactions. Founded in 2018 by logistics experts, newtrul has collected data on over 50k carriers and has over $2B worth of domestic freight under contract. For more information, visit https://www.newtrul.com/ or submit your inquiries to help@newtrul.com.

About Autotech Ventures

Autotech Ventures is an early stage Silicon Valley venture capital firm focused on tech start-ups in the global ground transportation industry.  With over $275 million under management, the firm provides start-ups with capital and a range of portfolio services, market intelligence, scale-up support and access to its transportation focused network including dozens of corporate investors.  To learn more, visit www.autotechvc.com