Smartlane, a Munich-based startup that offers AI-based solutions for optimised transport planning, announced that it has secured over €6M in a Series A round of funding.
New investor JOVA Direkt Invest GmbH and existing investors pitched in a combined €4.5M, while the remaining €1.7M came from EU support funds as a part of the European innovation promotion programme.
The fresh capital will allow Smartlane to expand its team and accelerate product development towards enabling autonomous logistics systems to fully manage the dispatch process.
“We are excited to see Smartlane playing a central role on the digitalisation roadmap of many carriers engaged in multi-drop distribution. Our solution cuts the dispatch overhead by up to 90 per cent while increasing the reliability and precision of the planning process immensely. This means that the growing volume of shipments can be handled more efficiently even in times of limited resources,” says Monja Mühling, Smartlane Co-Founder and CEO, commenting on the success of her company.
Smartlane: What you need to know
Founded by Dr. Mathias Baur, Monja Mühling and Florian Schimandl in 2015, Smartlane has developed an AI-based software, “Smartlane Transport Intelligence,” for transport optimisation in the logistics industry.
The company’s software digitalises the time-consuming manual dispatching and transport planning process in part-load distribution logistics.
Automated plans include dynamic order planning, route optimisation, and real-time details on order status and position of the delivery for customers.
It can put up to 21 per cent more shipments on the road while cutting costs, reduce planning time by up to 90 per cent, and shrink the CO2 footprint by optimising resource utilisation.
At present, the company’s customers include numerous part-load distribution SMBs, including several members of the Cargoline network. The company is backed by various investors, including Frank Thelen, Ideenschaft Invest, F-LOG Ventures, Ippen.Media and MobilityFund.
Investors
blueworld.group is the consultant of JOVA Direkt Invest GmbH, an investment fund of the Vaillant Family Office. The company supports ambitious, growth-oriented enterprises and new business models in a diverse range of industries.
Dr. Rigbert Fischer, CEO of blueworld.group, the investment management company providing exclusive, direct support to the new investor, says “Smartlane Transport Intelligence is the cutting-edge technology for automating planning and optimisation processes in transport logistics. This software solution for carriers is the entry ticket to effective, future-ready, and above all, sustainable transport planning.”