SA国际传媒

If you thought every 18 wheeler you saw driving across the highway was carrying precious cargo, you鈥檇 be wrong. Many are empty, emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

That鈥檚 the inefficiency and environmental toll that trucking startup is trying to eliminate. The company, which has been called the 鈥淯ber for Trucking鈥� has created a 鈥渄igital freight network鈥� matching shipments with carriers.

Convoy raised $400 million in its new round of funding co-led by and funds, the company announced Wednesday.

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Convoy last raised $185 million in a round led by in September 2018. The new Series D round brings the company鈥檚 to more than $668 million

In the past year, Convoy has had two major breakthroughs to make trucking in the United States more efficient, Chief Product Officer Ziad Ismail said. The company has been matching 95 percent of trucks in its network with technology, whereas the traditional industry matches trucks to cargo manually–an extremely expensive and less efficient method. Convoy has also been giving truck drivers two or three jobs at a time instead of just one to improve efficiency.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not trying to replicate and scale the existing model, we鈥檙e trying to build something that鈥檚 very different,鈥� Ismail said in an interview with SA国际传媒 News. The new round of funding will help further Convoy鈥檚 matching and efficiency efforts.

The U.S. market for trucking is about $1 trillion, according to Ziad, and there鈥檚 at least one other high-profile competitor trying to disrupt it: . The company announced in September that it would be investing $200 million annually into growing its Uber Freight operations.

But Ziad said Convoy isn鈥檛 focusing on Uber Freight or any other competitor. Other players in the space either started off as traditional shippers or acquired one, Ismail said, whereas Convoy has been zeroed in on having an efficient, tech-first, environmentally-friendly model all along.

鈥淲e鈥檙e really focused on this mission on transporting the world with zero waste…what we鈥檝e been able to build with this team really leads the industry,鈥� Ismail said.

Generation Investment Management co-led the new Series D round as a new investor after first becoming acquainted with Convoy in 2016, according to Generation partner Joy Tuffield.

鈥淭his is a space we have researched and looked at for a number of years now,鈥� Tuffield said. 鈥淐onvoy was a company that intrigued us.鈥�

Generation focuses on sustainable investments, so Convoy鈥檚 mission to reduce carbon dioxide emissions was a good fit.

鈥淲e are a firm that truly backs one kind of game in town…we鈥檙e kind of putting our full force behind making sure it鈥檚 a success,鈥� Tuffield said.

Convoy鈥檚 investors include Greylock Partners, Y Combinator, Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff, U2鈥檚 Bono and The Edge.

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