Onfleet raises $14 million to power last-mile deliveries for ecommerce companies

Onfleet, a platform that provides last-mile delivery management tools to third parties, has raised $14 million in a series A round of funding led by Kennet Partners.

The raise comes as demand for ecommerce and associated delivery services have gone through the roof due to the global pandemic, opening the door for companies such as Onfleet to serve as the logistics backbone for retailers wanting to capitalize on the rapid acceleration of online sales.

Dispatch

Founded in 2012, San Francisco-based Onfleet has built a routing and dispatch platform to manage the entire delivery process between a store, restaurant, or warehouse and the customer. A web-based dashboard provides access to Onfleet’s “auto-dispatch” engine, which assigns delivery jobs to drivers based on their availability and proximity, for example, while routes are automatically optimized based on time, location, capacity, and traffic conditions.

Above: Onfleet’s “auto-dispatch” engine

Moreover, an integrated chat platform allows dispatchers to communicate with drivers directly from their dashboard, negating the need to use separate chat apps, while predictive ETAs show when each delivery should arrive based on all the variables. This also generates real-time alerts, allowing businesses to tackle potential delays and let customers know.

Above: Onfleet: Chats and predictive ETAs

Other features spanning proof of delivery, automated status updates, real-time driver tracking, customer feedback solicitation, and more are also part of Onfleet’s various plans. Prices range from $149 a month on the starter plan all the way through to the professional plan, which starts at $1,999 for the full suite of features — this includes a white-label offering that lets companies host the tracking links on their own domain and remove Onfleet’s branding.

Logistical

Logistics management software, including dynamic and intelligent routing, is hardly a new concept, with delivery giants such as UPS investing heavily in their own versions of the technology. At the other end of the spectrum, a host of fledgling startups are vying for a piece of the $1.6 billion delivery management software market, including Tel Aviv-based Bringg, which raised $30 million during the heart of the global lockdown this year. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s DispatchTrack recently raised a whopping $144 million in what was its first ever outside investment in its nine-year history.

Earlier in the year, before the COVID-19 crisis had gripped the world, New York-based Bond secured $15 million for digital delivery service tools and distribution center infrastructure that helps smaller companies keep apace with Amazon.

Onfleet had previously raised around $6 million in its eight-year history, and it claims that it has been profitable for several years. Moreover, it has already amassed some big-name clients from the retail world, including Kroger and Gap, while newer “native” ecommerce players such as booze delivery startup Drizly also use Onfleet’s infrastructure.

With another $14 million in the bank, the startup said that it plans to “meet surging customer demand” that has led to “triple-digit” revenue growth over the past year and doubled its delivery volume.