Trailer telematics provider FleetPulse, which spun off of Great Dane, has received funding from two new sources: Ironspring Ventures and NFI Ventures, the latter an arm of logistics company NFI.
FleetPulse was founded in 2017, becoming the first trailer OEM telematics offering. The startup separated from Great Dane this past May and raised $11 million in seed money. FleetPulse features include GPS tracking, ABS fault code alerts, TPMS, hub rotation for mileage, lights out detection, tethered status, and more.
This next round, which was undisclosed, but what FleetPulse CEO Carl-Christoph “CCR” Reckers called "substantial," will further the company’s aim to drive innovations in the growing smart trailer space.
“The additional funding allows us to accelerate in many areas of the business…and will go towards improving the user experience of our platform, making FleetPulse easier to use and more insightful,” CCR told Fleet Maintenance. He mentioned a new sensor product coming in August and maintenance dashboard in September.
The company will also add new talent to the sales, customer support, and product teams.
CCR also noted the new funding is a “vote of confidence” from its partners. NFI was a FleetPulse early adopter and has worked with FleetPulse to improve trailer safety, cargo security, and overall fleet performance, the company said. The technology is currently on thousands of NFI customer assets to provide critical trailer health data, with more data on the way.
"Working together with Fleet Pulse will enable us to provide richer data and insights to our customers," said Jim O’Leary, VP of Fleet Services at NFI. “We go beyond providing transportation services and enable our customers to make data-driven decisions about their business."
FleetPulse sensors detect if a trailer is loaded or unloaded, which allows NFI to automate in/out times, status updates, and accessorial billing.
“This drives real impact since it enables proactive & real-time dispatch optimization, spotting potential delays on the dock before accessorials incur,” CCR said.
CCR also stressed that “the trailer must be a strategic, digital asset in our rapidly evolving industry,” and FleetPulse aims to help fleets keep up with that evolution. The end-to-end solution also promotes higher safety and uptime through products such as PRO telematics, which includes sensors for brakes, lights, tires, axles weight, and more.
“This allows maintenance managers to prioritize the most critical trailers, rather than applying standard preventative maintenance intervals, thus saving costs,” CCR said. “The sensors help diagnose issues earlier and take action before critical failures happen or citations are issued. The business case writes itself, given how affordable FleetPulse is and how costly accidents can be or how safety scores impact insurance and other costs downstream.”
Austin-based Ironspring Ventures has invested in several startups within construction, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics, and was attracted to FleetPulse’s speed in scaling up.
“FleetPulse delivers crucial visibility and data-driven insights into trailers, a key asset in the supply chain that has been underserved,” said Ty Findley, General Partner at Ironspring Ventures. “We were impressed by the team’s ability to rapidly deploy the FleetPulse product commercially on to what is now tens of thousands of trailers all across the US, Mexico, and Canada. And we’re thrilled to catalyze our network in support of the company’s incredible early momentum.”
FleetPulse GO Track, the company’s asset tracker, will come standard on every new Great Dane trailer, with the option for other FleetPulse factory-installed. Great Dane dealers can also retrofit older trailer with the technology.
