FOURKITES

Mathew Elenjickal spent years in supply chain management and saw that most companies had no real-time visibility into where their shipments were. They knew when a truck left and when it arrived, but everything in between was a black box.

He founded FourKites in 2014 in Chicago to build a platform that tracked shipments in real-time across all modes of transportation — trucks, trains, ships, and planes. The name comes from the metaphor of flying a kite with four strings — controlling visibility from multiple angles.

Enterprise SaaS subscription. FourKites charges an annual license fee based on the number of shipments tracked and features used.

Enterprise contracts with Fortune 500 companies provide predictable recurring revenue. The platform monetizes through visibility, analytics, appointment scheduling, and yard management modules.

Real-Time Visibility (track shipments across all modes). Predictive ETAs (machine learning-based arrival predictions).

Appointment Management (dock scheduling). Yard Management (trailer tracking at facilities).

Ocean Visibility (container tracking). Supply chain analytics and reporting.

Land-and-expand with Fortune 500 shippers. FourKites started with large shippers (Coca-Cola, AB InBev) who had the most to gain from real-time visibility.

Success with these customers created case studies that attracted other large enterprises. The company expanded from road tracking to multimodal (ocean, rail, air) and from visibility into appointment scheduling and yard management.

Competition from project44 (direct competitor with similar funding) and from carriers building their own visibility platforms. Enterprise sales cycles are long.

The pandemic supply chain chaos boosted demand but also raised customer expectations for accuracy and coverage.

Backed by Bain Capital Ventures, August Capital, and various corporate investors. Bain Capital Ventures led the Series D in 2021, valuing FourKites at approximately $1.2 billion.