Supply chain visibility company Kargo raises $25mn

San Francisco-based Kargo, a supply chain visibility company, raised $25 million Series A led by Sozo Ventures with participation from Founders Fund, Activant, Human Capital, Strike Capital, Lineage Ventures, and Flexport.

"The capital will be used to expand the Kargo team and scale its software and hardware offerings," an official statement said.

Spencer Foust, Managing Director, Sozo Ventures will join the board of Kargo, the statement added.

"The loading dock is a critical, physical point of contact for supply chain partners where all stakeholders - shippers, LSPs, carriers - interact. For years, avoidable mistakes like miscounting a load or not catching damaged goods have caused inefficiency across the board," says Sam Lurye, CEO and Founder, Kargo. "There isn't a single SaaS solution to tackle this problem. So we created our Kargo Towers and accompanying platform to flag inefficiencies in real time and finally bring visibility to loading docks."

Sensing Towers at the loading dock door automate the freight inspection and QC processes. At the same time, Kargo is gathering, analysing and operationalising unique data that provides visibility of both freight and facility operations.

The platform aggregates and operationalises data for every supply chain stakeholder. It sits on top of existing ERP or WMS, and Kargo's sensor towers and flags real-time exceptions like overages, shortages, damage and operations failures.

"Sam and his team are bringing visibility to a critical node in the supply chain, which will enable them to become the premier warehouse and supply chain management company," says Foust. "Kargo is innovating in an industry that's been left largely untouched but is critical to the global economy by leveraging emerging technologies to create a new data source that has the power to redefine how we transport products."

"At Flexport, we're on a mission to make global trade easier for everyone and Kargo's product does just that," says Ben Braverman, Chief Customer Officer, Flexport. "Kargo towers secure our network by generating a digital record of every item entering or exiting a Flexport facility, 24/7 and we're excited to become an investor as well as a customer."

Kargo currently employs a team of 20, and plans to triple its workforce in the next six months, adding satellite offices.