Supply chain platform project44, which offers technology to help shippers and logistics service providers see where their shipments are, on Tuesday (Sept. 21) announced that it has bought delivery experience management company Convey in a $255 million purchase, according to a press release.
With the acquisition, project44 and Convey link more than 880 global shippers and third-party logistics providers with a network of 113,000 carriers, 2.6 million assets and more than 9 billion shipments. Together, the companies serve the worldwide supply chain end-to-end and can help shippers increase revenue and improve costs, speed and the overall delivery experience. The companies can provide up-to-the-minute insight from every step of the supply chain and delivery journey to assist companies in offering direct-to-consumer and e-Commerce experiences for their customers.
The $255 million purchase marks project44’s third this year and its largest to date.
Convey, which provides direct-to-consumer delivery experiences for more than 200 large companies, including The Home Depot and Neiman Marcus, utilizes artificial intelligence to help improve collaboration, push toward workflow automation and prevent business disruption via predictive order intelligence.
The acquisition follows project44’s rise to unicorn status, with the completion of a $202 million funding round in June allowing the company’s valuation to reach $1.2 billion, according to PYMNTS.
Read more: Supply Chain Platform project44 Raises $202 Million, Becomes Unicorn
In addition to purchasing Convey to help improve supply chain efficiencies, earlier this year, project44 launched Supplier Visibility, which gives shippers a new way to see prepaid freight from suppliers, according to PYMNTS.
The real-time information lets shippers manage the inventory levels and carry costs while also looking more at breaking down internal silos between the transportation and demand chain departments. The program helps retailers, consumer goods companies and warehouse manufacturers gain better labor optimization and increased efficiencies at the warehouse, which could help prevent upwards of $20 million in overspend with inefficient yard and warehouse labor allocation, excess stock and wait times for trucks at warehouses and distribution centers.