On-demand trucking provider Convoy this week announced a $16 million round of fundraising and an expansion outside of its native Washington state.
Convoy, founded in Seattle by former Amazon.com employees, was heralded as an Uber for the trucking industry when it launched last fall with the help of $2.5 million in startup funding.
The company's website and app allows businesses and shippers to instantly book nearby trucking companies and track local shipments in real time.
Executives said that the trucking industry remained mired in a decades-old business model and that quickly finding and securing trucking services, particularly for small businesses, was difficult.
Initial investors in Convoy included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, Starbucks President Howard Behar and other top tech executives.
The latest $16 million haul was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Greylock Partners and also included Amazon executive Jeff Wilke and Instagram chief Kevin Systrom.
"Convoy serves a tremendous need for the trucking industry," said Greylock's Reid Hoffman and Simon Rothman, who will join the company's board. "In order to compete, shippers and carriers need the networks between them to be more efficient so they can operate faster and with greater flexibility."
In addition, the company announced that its service is now available in neighboring Oregon.
CEO Dan Lewis told The New York Times that its network already comprises thousands of truckers and that revenue doubled in each month since its inception.
