Baton, a logistics technology platform developed out of 8VC’s Build program, has raised $10.5 million in a Series A funding round, co-led by 8VC and Maersk Growth.
Baton focuses on the adoption of autonomous vehicles in trucking and aims to solve a vital problem in the industry: Over two billion hours are lost annually due to dwell and detention.
“We’re excited to bring cutting-edge technology to one of the biggest problems in transportation,” said Nate Robert, co-founder of Baton. “We have the opportunity to fundamentally change how long-haul trucking works by bifurcating routes into a highway-only segment and a local segment, enabling trucking companies to increase efficiency, improve profit margins and increase driver miles and wages.”
Baton’s technology platform aims to enable long-haul truckers to drop off and pick up loads at Baton drop zones in major metro areas, and then a network of local fleets does the first and final mile of delivery to warehouses. This strategy works to eliminate the wasted hours associated with detention, in-transit dwell and inter-appointment dwell for long-haul trucks. According to Baton, it increases wages for drivers, reduces carbon emissions and, furthermore, enables highway-only autonomous trucks to hand off loads to human drivers for the first and final mile.
Baton sub-leases these 24/7 drop zones and provides the software to coordinate vehicles, drop-zones, warehouses and local drivers through a single API.
“In the future, Baton’s platform will make it possible for highway-only autonomous trucks to hand off their loads to human-driven electric trucks in the city, who can then drive at off-peak hours for the greatest efficiency,” added Andrew Berberick, Baton co-founder. “None of this would be possible at scale without the world-class optimization engine that underlies Baton’s core operation, monitoring and coordinating a host of loads and appointment windows concurrently.”
Baton currently operates in Los Angeles and plans to use this Series A funding to hire more engineers and service additional major cities across the country, including Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas in the next 12 to 18 months.
“We are proud about investing in the Baton Team. Baton is a great addition to our Maersk Growth portfolio supporting our mission to democratize the supply chain,” said Maersk Growth Partner Jeppe Hoier. “The Baton solution addresses major inefficiencies in haulage dwell and detention to the benefit of all players in the ecosystem. We look forward to partnering with them on their exciting drop and hook technology and facilitating more sustainable last-mile services.”
