Jeff Bezos invested personally. SoftBank put in $400 million. Convoy raised $900 million total to prove that software could fix the $800 billion US trucking industry. Then freight volumes collapsed, margins went negative, and Convoy shut down in October 2023 — laying off all 500 employees and selling its technology to Flexport for a fraction of what investors paid. Nine hundred million dollars spent to learn that trucking is a commodity business where the commodity (a truck) does not care about your algorithm when there is nothing to carry. The graveyard of logistics startups grows deeper.
Founded
2015
HQ
Seattle, Washington
Total Raised
$900 million
Founder
Dan Lewis, Grant Goodale
Status
Shut down (October 2023)
Website
www.convoy.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Dan Lewis (ex-Amazon, ex-Microsoft) and Grant Goodale (ex-Amazon) founded Convoy in Seattle in 2015. The US trucking market is $800 billion and wildly inefficient — 35% of trucks drive empty.
Convoy's algorithm aimed to fix that by matching loads with nearby carriers in real-time. Jeff Bezos personally invested.
Y Combinator backed them. SoftBank wrote a $400 million check.
By 2022, Convoy was valued at $3.8 billion.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Convoy was a digital freight brokerage — an Uber for trucking. Shippers posted loads, carriers bid on them, and Convoy's algorithm matched supply with demand.
Revenue came from the spread between what shippers paid and what carriers received. The pitch: eliminate middlemen, reduce empty miles, and make trucking more efficient.
THE PRODUCTS
Convoy Freight Platform (digital freight matching), Convoy Go (guaranteed capacity), Convoy for Carriers (carrier app)
HOW THEY GREW
The strategy was to use technology and data to build the most efficient freight network in America, then expand into adjacent logistics services. Convoy also invested in autonomous trucking partnerships and sustainability (reducing empty miles = reducing emissions).
THE HARD PART
The freight recession. When freight volumes collapsed in 2022-2023 as pandemic-era supply chain chaos normalized, Convoy's revenue fell off a cliff.
Digital brokerages have razor-thin margins even in good times. In a downturn, margins go negative — carriers have leverage because there are fewer loads.
Convoy burned through cash trying to maintain market share during the downturn.
MONEY TRAIL
Seed (YC)
2015 · Led by
$3M raised
Series C
2019 · Led by
$400.0B raised
Series D
2022 · Led by
$260.0B raised
Shutdown
2023 · Led by
$0 raised
WHO BACKED THEM
SoftBank Vision Fund, Y Combinator, Greylock Partners, T. Rowe Price, Lone Pine Capital, Jeff Bezos (personal)
POST-MORTEM
Money Burned
$900 million
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