– Koffie Labs (Koffie), an insurtech focused on reinventing the trucking and transportation markets, today announced it has raised $4.5m in venture financing.
– Anthemis Group and Lerer Hippeau led two rounds of seed round financing with participation from 2048 Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures and C2 Ventures.
– Trucking insurance is an essential component of the broader $800b trucking industry and the backbone of the US economy. With commercial auto rates consistently increasing over the last decade, there are few viable options for fleets.
– Koffie uses telematics and advanced safety technology to underwrite trucking companies, rewarding fleets that invest in safety with discounted insurance premiums.

– Shippo, a software company that provides shipping-related services to e-commerce companies, raised $45m funding.
– The round was led by D1 Capital and joined by previous investors, including Accel, First Round Capital, and Y Combinator.
– The company plans to use the new capital to continue to grow its customer base.

– Gophr, a U.K.-based last-mile delivery provider, has raised £4 million in funding.
– The round was led by pan-European B2B investor Nauta Capital.
– The company had previously raised £1 million in two rounds, including £500,000 from publicly listed Auctus Alternative Investments.
– Noteworthy, Gophr’s co-founder and CEO, Seb Robert, tells me the 2015-founded company reached monthly net profitability around three years ago and was net profitable for the whole of last year.
– Like other delivery companies, Gophr has benefited from a pandemic bump, but fortitude aside, is aiming to step on the gas.

– Shift One closed a $5.2m seed funding round led by City Light Capital and JAM Fund.
– The company was founded in 2019 by former Uber executives to address two fundamental challenges of the labor economy: the lack of a robust online marketplace for blue-collar jobs and a technology solution for companies looking to hire those workers.
– The company currently employs more than 25,000 workers and offers solutions in all 50 states and Latin America.
– Initially focusing on push-button solutions to quickly deploy entire teams of workers for last-mile logistics and delivery, e-commerce fulfillment and large-scale event management, Shift One is redefining the gig economy to build sustainable, long-term careers for workers and capital-efficient solutions for companies.

– Locus Robotics, a Wilmington, Massachusetts-based warehouse robotics startup, today announced it has raised $150 million in series E funding at a $1 billion post-money valuation.
– The company says the funding will allow it to accelerate product innovation and global expansion.
– Locus expects that in the next four years, over a million warehouse robots will be installed and that the number of warehouses using them will grow tenfold.
– Worker shortages attributable to the pandemic have accelerated the adoption of automation.
– According to ABI Research, more than 4 million commercial robots will be installed in over 50,000 warehouses around the world by 2025, up from under 4,000 warehouses as of 2018.

– ShipMonk is a leading provider of e-commerce fulfillment and technology solutions.
– The company raised $65m in growth equity from Periphas Capital.
– ShipMonk’s total funding exceeds $365m, including previous funding from SJF Ventures, Grotech Ventures and Supply Chain Ventures.

– Airspace is a technology platform revolutionizing time-critical logistics.
– The company raised $38m in Series C funding.
– Telstra Ventures and HarbourVest Partners led the round.
– Other participants in the round include return backers Scale Ventures, Defy Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, and Prologis Ventures.
– Including this round, the company has secured a total of over $70m through 3 funding rounds.

– Instabox from near Stockholm, Sweden raised $90m in Series B funding.
– The round was led by EQT Ventures.
– The company intends to use the funds to further invest in technology that will enhance the value-chain for customers and merchants, plus expansion outside of Sweden.
– Instabox is a logistics startup that provides e-commerce deliveries across its locations in Sweden — with a maximum of six hours between the merchant and the consumer — through a smart locker network. The tech platform provides the team with real-time, end-to-end tracking of all deliveries, allowing for optimisation at each step of the way.

– SmartHop from Miami, FL, is a tech-enabled platform giving truckers easy load booking, end-to-end back-office support, and above-market RPMs so they can truck smarter not harder.
– The company announced a $12m Series A financing round, led by Union Square Ventures with participation from RyderVentures – a new corporate venture capital fund by leading logistics company Ryder System; as well as Equal Ventures and Greycroft.

– Slync.io from Dallas develops a logistics operating process and system orchestration platform for global logistics providers and shippers.
– Series B $60m round led by Goldman Sachs Growth with participation from ACME Ventures, 235 Capital Partners, Correlation Ventures and other existing investors.
– The new investment will be aimed at expanding the company’s business reach in Europe and Asia.
– Goldman Sachs’ John Giannuzzi will also join Slync’s board of directors.