Emerge announces a new capital raise of $130 million

Scottsdale, Arizona-based Emerge, a provider of its proprietary Digital Freight Marketplace (DFM) and TMS focused on accelerating productivity and increasing visibility for supply chain stakeholders and freight procurement, recently announced it raised $130 million in a Series B funding round.

Emerge said that this round of funding—which was led by investment firms 9Yards Capital, Tiger Global Management, and The Spruce House Partnership, as well as additional participation from existing investors New Road Capital Partners, and Greycroft—is its third, following an initial seed round, and a Series A round, noting it brings its total capital raise to more than $150 million.

Emerge added that this round of funding will focus on various initiatives, including expanding product development and research and significantly scaling research efforts, too.

Emerge was established in early 2018 by Andrew Leto and Michael, siblings whose transportation roots run deep, as their father operated an air freight business, followed by their ownership of GlobalTranz, a full-service 3PL focused on freight brokerage and technology, whom was acquired earlier in 2018 by The Jordan Company, a private equity firm, for more than $400 million. 

The company’s freight logistics platform allows shippers to find reliable truck capacity at optimized shipping rates, according to Emerge officials. They added that Emerge’s cloud-based rate platform is the first digital freight marketplace that connects shippers to direct carrier rates and that it is designed to reduce shipper operating costs by facilitating contract optimization and augmenting service from quote to delivery.

“We’ve been fortunate to experience explosive growth in the past few years, and this funding will be very useful to Emerge’s future success. It’s no small task and will take a lot of collaboration, but our ultimate goal is to enhance how the industry operates for everyone involved,” Emerge Founder and Co-CEO, Michael Leto said in a statement. “We are looking forward to continually evolving our cloud-based procurement software to create the most sophisticated freight solution in the country.” 

What’s more, Emerge explained that this most recent round of funding follows a very strong 2020 and 2021, to date, in which the company has rolled out its Dynamic RFP (Request for Proposal) platform, which is focused on providing customers with better bid execution and providing more spot opportunities. The company also highlighted how it will focus on further enhancing its product offerings to “solve real-life logistics problems within shippers’ supply chains and improve the relationship between carriers and shippers in contract and spot markets,” adding that this year shippers are currently on track to leverage Dynamic RFP to procure more than $4 billion in freight.

“As a company, we will continue to invest heavily in technology solutions that bring shippers and carriers closer together in the Emerge ecosystem,” an Emerge spokesperson told LM. “The Emerge platform helps bridge the gap between the disjointed and largely siloed procurement landscape where shippers and carriers have limited communication and insight into their procurement choices, especially pricing. Instead, Emerge brings shippers and carriers together in one space to create and build mutually beneficial relationships, with full visibility throughout the procurement process.”

And the spokesperson added that by replacing spreadsheets and e-mails with automated, AI-driven intelligence, the Dynamic RFP platform helps shippers take complicated RFPs and simplifies execution down to a matter of days instead of months.

“This efficiency, paired with the active digital spot marketplace and robust partner connections make it the ideal solution for freight shippers of all sizes,” said the spokesperson.

Jack Holmes, Emerge Executive Chairman and former President and CEO of UPS Freight, told LM that Emerge's mission is to transform procurement, adding that the Emerge team has grown leaps and bounds in four years to do just that.

“Highlighted by our recent successful funding round, Emerge is on track to revolutionize the transportation industry,” Holmes said. “As we move into this next stage of growth, we are excited to build on our spot and contract procurement solutions to create a truly collaborative environment for shippers and carriers alike.”