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Today’s number: $808 million. This is the amount of money Knight- Swift payment in the recent acquisition of failing U.S Xpress.

Hello and welcome back to news, trends & insights in the industry.

In today’s edition:

• 3 Start-ups (Trax, Manna, and Oxobtica)

• 2 Old guards (Knight-Swift and JD. com )

• 1 Tech battery swapping (Gogoro)

• 1 Origin story ( Camel Caravans)

Let’s dive in.

In the Box

Oxbotica and Goggo partner for autonomous middle-mile delivery

The Berlin-based Goggo Network - an autonomous delivery company has teamed up with British-based self-driving software company Oxbotica to text middle-mile deliveries for retailers like Dia and Carrefour.

The last Wednesday announcement pilot deliveries are set to begin this year. Notably, the test deliveries will begin in Spain with partners for partners like the Spanish pizza chain Telepizza.

The new solution will be deployed on-road as part of Goggo’s electric vehicle ( EV) network. The success of the pilot test will lead to the roll-out of the technology to a wider Europe including France.

Funding: In January 2023, Oxbotica closed Series C $140 million to continue building its autonomous software dubbed ‘ Universal Autonomy”

The round which brought total raise of $225 million was led by a mix of investors including Japan’s Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., Ltd., and ENEOS Innovation Partners, the corporate VC of the mining conglomerate Eneos.

Trax closes $3.7m seed round to bet on E-commerce

The Pakistan logistic start-up closed a $3.7 million seed fund to tap into the growth of South Asia’s e-commerce growth.

Founded in 2017 as pioneering logistics e-commerce in Parkistan, the funding was led by Tricap INnvestent of the Arab-United Emirates and US-based Amaana Capital.

According to the company, the funding will be used to accelerate the growth of its logistics services. Other vertical investments would include fintech.

Parkistan VC money: Despite the political challenges in the country, the funding remained the same with a slight 7% decline in 2022 compared to 2021. ($375 million in 2021, compared to $347 million in 2022).

Manna Aero getting on U.S. soil.

The Irish drone delivery company is set to expand to the United States with a strategic investment from Coca-Cola HBC - the bottling partner for The Coca-Cola Company.

Even though the investment was not disclosed, according to the drinks giant CEO, the company is aiming to achieve net zero emissions across its value chain by 2040.

The drone delivery company has partnered with a multinational real estate company Hillwood to initially serve 10,000 residents in Texas’ Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

Manna Aero will be competing with Google’s Wing drone arm which is leading drone delivery in the U.S. thus far. The roll-out for Manna Aero is waiting for FAA approval.

Europe expansion: Manna drone delivery has proved enviable success to regulators in EASA and has plans to expand to another 100,000-strong suburb population after approval. 

Technology

Gogoro expanding battery swapping for Foodpanda.

The Taiwanese electric vehicle battery-swapping provider has eyes on Singapore with the latest Foodpanda partnership.

The pilot test will happen at a small scale with only 20 Smartscooters delivery packages for the online grocery and food delivery platform.

With recent demands by the Singapore government on sustainable mobility solutions for logistics and delivery, Gogoro and C&C were awarded a battery-swapping sandbox pilot for electric two-wheel vehicles by the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) last year.

Gogoro technology combines the greatest vehicle optimization reliability for businesses while providing the easiest and most sophisticated battery-swapping system that enables logistics companies to better manage their fleets and deliveries more efficiently.

Old Guards

Knight-Swift acquires U.S Xpress

At a price tag of $808 million, the transaction has been unanimously agreed upon by both the board of directors of the publicly listed truckload companies.

The acquisition will go down as one of the largest truckload carrier sales in history. The price is $6.15 per share. U.S. Xpress stock closed Monday at $1.50.

it’s worth noting that the company has recently struggled to match the growth of its peers. However, the Knight-Swift CEO commented in the press release:

“… We expect to apply the same playbook that proved successful in the Knight-Swift merger as we share best practices, improve operations and work together to help U.S. Xpress become the best that it can be…”

JD. com’s self-operating warehouses in California

The Chinese e-commerce giant is in the works to open their third warehousing and distribution center in California.

JD. com is heavily investing in its logistic arm with the latest update from the company CFO Sandy Ran Xu in a Q4 earnings call stating:

“We continue to invest in building global logistics infrastructure that better leverages our core capabilities and explore online retail business opportunities in other markets,”

In the company blog, the company stated the hope to one day grows two-day delivery to cover the entire united states.

Logistics Origins

Camel Caravans in the desert

During the golden period of the 9th century CE onwards, caravans consisted of thousands of camels traveling from North Africa - to the Sahara desert.

These camel caravans were largely controlled by Berbers who acted as middlemen in the exchange of desired commodities like salt, copper, gold, luxury goods, hides, and more.

The Greek historian Herodotus in his famous work Histories, noted a camel caravan route that went from Thebes in Egypt to Niger is more likely to have been the origin of the mode of logistics.

Thank you for reading.

My goal is to break down complex technologies in the logistics and supply chain industry. Hope it is worthwhile.

Over and out,

Okerosi