ZUUM Transportation raises $8.58 million in seed funding, bringing total raise to almost $13 million

With an eye on spurring logistics technology innovation, Irvine, Calif.-based ZUUM Transportation Inc. recently announced it has closed a second round of seed funding, of $8.58 million, brining its total capital raise to $12.58 million.

Established in 2016, ZUUM delivers thousands of loads per month for more than 235 shippers, which includes various Fortune 500 companies, according to company officials. The company’s flagship offering—the Logistics Super Platform—focuses on automating freight throughout the United States through its digital freight marketplace (DFM), shipper TMS, broker software, and carrier TMS, driver app, with benefits for each grouping, including: real-time visibility and instant freight quotes for shippers; accelerated load coverage and automated client notifications for brokers; and transparent commissions, profitable loads, and route optimization for carriers.

In an interview, ZUUM Co-Founder and COO Matt Tabatabai  explained that the key focus for ZUUM, since its 2016 inception, goes back to the defragmentation and decentralization, coupled with a lack of visibility, within logistics, which he called the biggest problem in the industry, and comes with myriad inefficiencies.

“We built this company with people that came from the industry, and that is very important because a lot of what has happened in our space over the last ten-to-20 years is that it was one of the most antiquated industries out there, even though it was one of the most important,” he said. “We were able to quickly understand the biggest pain points in the market. And we first built our digital freight marketplace, connecting shippers to carriers, which is important because 97% of U.S. trucking companies have less than 20 trucks and are not being connected with shippers and are being beat up, in a sense.”

The ZUUM digital freight marketplace, said Tabatabai, has full transparency for carriers, in addition to a free TMS solution, which he said is one of the most comprehensive in the market, so carriers can manage their fleets and do everything from A-to-Z in a single interface. 

“That is where we started out, but we quickly learned there is white space,” he noted. “Without the brokers in the middle that have all of the relationships…you are basically not going to get the synergy you want. So we started bringing brokers into the mix and digitizing them, and that kind of became our differentiation aside from having that very comprehensive DFM model, and then we moved towards what we call our Logistics Super Platform, proving that end-to-end solution for shippers, brokers, and carriers that is not just all about automation. It is giving them the tools they need for visibility and to be able to load match and to be dynamic in how they want to work with the whole carrier network. And we gave them this Logistics Super Platform, which makes everyone’s life easier and streamlined.”     

Tabatabai said that ZUUM now has more than 60 employees and is growing rapidly, also noting that the company has very strategic partnerships with various carriers, customers, investors and some of the biggest players in the industry, with a sharp focus on bringing the industry together under one super platform.  

With a little less than $13 million now amassed in seed funding, Tabatabai said that the recent $8.58 million in seed funding will be spread across various focus areas.

“We are heavily investing in sales and marketing and are in that growth stage,” he said. “But we are also at the forefront of innovation and especially now with everything that is going on, we are focused on building products and partnering up with companies that have the most innovative technology and integrating into them. Sales and marketing, continuing to build operations, and having that human interaction and expertise are our focuses in getting that network effect and also continuing to digitally build for our customers.”