Optimus Technology acquires SmartHop Freight Platform
Optimus Technology Inc. has acquired SmartHop’s load and fleet management platform and plans to give it to small and midsize carriers at no cost, the company announced Monday. Deal terms were not disclosed.
The Austin, Texas-based company will distribute SmartHop through financial, insurance and logistics partners that together reach tens of thousands of trucking companies. Platforms run by those partners see more than 40,000 weekly active users, according to Optimus.
Optimus is repackaging SmartHop as a white-label developer kit that drops into apps carriers already use, said Ed Stockman, founder and CEO of Optimus, in an interview with FreightWaves.
In a pitch to partners, Stockman noted the free digital dispatch tool allows them to put their own logo and branding on it for use in their existing app. It’ll allow carriers already logged in to manage their trucks, find and book loads among other things
In return, Optimus gets the shipment activity. “All of that data runs through our pipes and helps build the simulations for the physical economy,” he said.
The partners that supply Optimus with data, including financial and insurance institutions, all want to get “stickier” with their carriers, he said. All of them have evaluated buying and building digital dispatch companies, he added.
SmartHop Data Feeds the Freight Model
The data goes into the Freight Intelligence Graph, a digital twin of the U.S. freight network that Optimus previewed in August . The model is designed to show how disruptions and structural changes affect freight flows. Optimus said its existing data network covers a substantial portion of the U.S. full truckload market and is months away from critical mass.
Stockman said SmartHop “ties in carrier transactions that we wouldn’t otherwise have,” especially from small and midsize fleets. Those carriers are budget constrained, he said, and every tool that charges them is another expense that cuts into their profitability.
Stockman said SmartHop spent tens of millions of dollars developing the software and built “a hell of a product that got great reviews from the carrier community.” SmartHop, led by co-founder and CEO Guillermo Garcia, had raised $16.5 million through its Series A round in February 2021 , FreightWaves reported at the time.
The data the company wants is the movement of freight: where it originates, where it goes, when it moves and how those patterns change, according to the release.
“The rates negotiated on individual loads and the identities of the parties doing business with one another are not the purpose of this effort and in many cases, are redacted from our models,” Stockman said in the announcement.
Brokers Pay for the Data
Building the model is expensive, Stockman said, and he sees two ways to pay for it.
“One is to have a top-tier pedigree, where you have exited for billions of dollars and somebody is willing to write you blank checks. That’s certainly one way. That’s not me,” he said. “The other possibility is you’re able to show proof that people are willing to pay for your tool that the data sits on.”
Optimus’ proof is its brokerage product. The software runs against a broker’s TMS, identifies what the brokerage already does well and returns shippers to target, with contact names, emails, phone numbers and a sales pitch. A broker strong in automotive freight into Detroit, in Stockman’s example, gets a list of 14 other shippers it should be calling. Stockman said the software gives brokers “all the answers to the test.”
He said the data has generated tens of millions of dollars in new gross revenue for Optimus customers.
Modeling a Houston Hurricane
Stockman pointed to Optimus’ simulation of a hurricane hitting Houston . When he drilled into one affected shipper, he said, its Seattle fulfillment center drew its inventory from Houston, moving it through Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., before it reached Seattle.
“So if there is no Houston to L.A., and there is no L.A. to Portland, and there is no Portland to Seattle, that Seattle distribution center winds up completely stranded,” he said.
He listed retailers, manufacturers, brokers, carriers and insurers as potential users of that kind of modeling. Many insurance companies are trying to move into dynamic coverage written on a per-load basis, he said.
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