Rail Carrier Genesee & Wyoming Buys Stake in Cargomatic
Genesee & Wyoming Inc., a rail freight carrier with operations in North America, Australia and Europe, has purchased a stake in Cargomatic, a Long Beach, Calif.-based firm that uses a mobile app to connect shippers with local truck drivers.
Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
Michael Miller, chief commercial officer of G&W, said the company also will add the Cargomatic load-matching platform at terminal and transload locations across the United States and will work with Cargomatic to expand its operations in Australia and Europe.
“The Cargomatic team has built a world-class platform . . . to connect shippers and carriers to drive supply chain efficiency,” Miller said in a statement Feb. 7. “By extending our first and last mile service offering, Cargomatic not only improves the efficiency of logistics between rail and road, it simplifies the multimodal touchpoints for our customers.”
Cargomatic CEO Richard Gerstein said the deal with G&W “will create unprecedented transparency and facilitate ease-of-use for first and last mile logistics networks associated with rail.”
In addition, Gerstein said, it sets the stage for what Cargomatic sees as the “semi-autonomous future of transportation: scalable long-haul rail — one train hauling hundreds of containers and railcars — with local, human-powered pickup and delivery.”
Cargomatic was launched in 2013 and has about 50 full time employees. The company says that about 300 customers are using the app to connect with roughly 1,000 active drivers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Houston.
G&W operates 115 short line and regional railroads with service in 41 states and four Canadian provinces. The company serves more than 40 major ports worldwide and is the largest rail maritime intermodal operator in the United Kingdom and Europe. Its business in Australia is conducted through a joint venture with Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.
Cargomatic has previously received funding from a number of venture capital firms, including Volvo Group Venture Capital.
