Logistics services provider SF Express invested $100m in US-based freight management platform developer Flexport on Friday, increasing its total funding to $304m since it was founded in 2013.
Flexport runs an online service that enables users to access trucking, air and ocean freight shipping services and also provides cargo insurance, and inventory financing and customs brokerage. It was responsible for the shipping of about $3.8bn of goods in 2017.
The company, which began offering its own private air freight service between Hong Kong to Los Angeles earlier this year, will spend the funding on strengthening its technology capabilities.
Flexport also plans to double its warehousing capacity and open offices in Taiwan and the cities of Hamburg, Chicago and Shanghai. It did not disclose the valuation at which SF Express invested, but it was valued at $910m in its last round, in October 2017.
The October round was a $110m series C led by investment firm DST Global and backed by Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, a subsidiary of financial services firm Wells Fargo, as well as existing investors including venture capital firms Founders Fund and Susa Ventures.
The latter two had taken part in Flexport’s $65m series B round the year before, investing alongside Bloomberg Beta, media group Bloomberg’s corporate venturing unit, as well as Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Yuri Milner and Joe Lonsdale at a $365m valuation.
Bloomberg Beta, Susa, First Round, Acqequia Capital, A-Grade Investments, Box Group, Cherubic Ventures, Fuel Capital, Funders Club, Hydrazine Capital, Inside Capital, Kindling Capital, Lunch Van Fund, SV Angel, TYLT Lab, Winklevoss Capital and Y Combinator had initially provided $6.9m in seed capital in 2015.
Flexport added $20m later the same year in a series A round featuring both Bloomberg Beta and GV, the corporate VC subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet formerly known as Google Ventures.
Susa Ventures, Founders Fund, First Round, A-Grade Investments, Cherubic Ventures, Fuel Capital, Funders Club, Felicis Ventures, Y Combinator, Ceyuan Ventures and Fenway Summer Ventures filled out the series A investors.
Ryan Petersen founder and chief executive of Flexport, said: “Our mission is to make global trade easy for everyone. The investment by SF Express, one of the world’s top couriers, will let us create more value for businesses shipping freight internationally.”