Convoy Inc., a startup competing with Uber Technologies Inc. in the $700 billion trucking market, today divulged that it has landed a $185 million funding round. 

Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG fund led the investment. It was joined by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. and hedge fund Lone Pine Capital, as well as unnamed returning investors. Convoy previously raised capital from Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment, Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions and Salesforce.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff.

Convoy provides a mobile app that connects companies who deal in physical goods with trucking companies willing to ship their merchandise. The startup promises to handle the process more efficiently than traditional freight brokerages, which have historically carried out much of their work manually.

One of the specific advantages that Convoy offers over the competition is predictable pricing. The startup enables shippers and trucking companies to sort out payment details upfront, which avoids surprises down the road.

Once a delivery is underway, companies can monitor their cargo via a dashboard that tracks the location of booked trucks in real time. Convoy displays the data alongside higher-level information about metrics such as lane performance to help shippers find ways of optimizing their supply chains.

For freight companies, the app’s value proposition is that it offers access to a large selection of shipping contracts they can filter based on factors such cargo type and route. The ability to sort projects based on lane is a particularly important part of Convoy’s pitch. The startup enables couriers to find contracts that let them use trucks coming back from a previous delivery, which avoids the expense of driving an empty vehicle.

Convoy will use the new capital to expand into more locations in the U.S. and widen its feature set. The startup told the Wall Street Journal that it plans to improve the data available to customers booking shipments, as well as introduce the ability for trucking companies to take on multiple deliveries at once.

Convoy has raised $265 million in funding to date. Today’s round values the startup at $1 billion. 

Photo: Pixabay