uShip.com recently announced that the company has closed an $18M round of Series C financing with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). According to the company, the funds will be used primarily to extend the development, sales and marketing of uShip’s commercial freight platform, mobile platform and global presence. Maritza Liaw, Partner at KPCB, will join uShip’s Board of Directors.
This round of funding is also expected to enable uShip to further develop its new “PRO” platform (currently in private beta), which is designed to allow business shippers and freight brokers to build their own carrier networks and manage and automate shipping operations. The new uShip PRO is primarily aimed at the $300B truckload freight market in the U.S., and complements uShip’s consumer-oriented marketplace.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers invests in all stages of business development from seed and incubation to growth companies. The group is credited with helping to build companies such as Amazon, Google, Intuit, Symantec, and WebMD.
“Kleiner Perkins funding and resources will propel uShip’s next phase of growth,” said Matt Chasen, CEO and founder of uShip Commercial. “Freight is trending toward complete automation and greater efficiency, meaning uShip’s PRO platform has the opportunity to impact the entire industry, from enterprise shippers to freight brokers to carriers. We’ve already built an online shipping marketplace of over 1.6 million shipping customers and 325,000 registered carriers… KPCB’s funding and support will allow us to continue our global expansions plans and further develop our innovative shipping platform.”
This financing brings the total capital raised by uShip to $28M, According to uShip. KPCB joins institutional investors Benchmark Capital and DAG Ventures, each of which participated in earlier rounds.
