Why We Invested in Alvys, a Logistics Platform Built for Carriers and Brokers

We are thrilled to announce our latest investment in Alvys, a cloud-based transportation management system which has raised $6.3M in seed funding. Bonfire led the round with participation from RTP Global and strategic angel investors. Read more about their financing in Businesswire.

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Despite being one of the largest and most vital sectors in the US, the trucking industry remains extremely outdated: plagued by manual operations, communication challenges, logistical complexities, and fragmented, archaic toolsets. While strides have been made to help optimize operations for the large, enterprise-scale carriers, the small to mid-sized segment of the market has largely been overlooked.

Nick Darman became intimately familiar with these problems when managing his first company, Archerhub, an asset-based truckload brokerage. He decided to build the software solution that he needed for his own business, and then expanded it to address the needs of SMB carriers and brokers alike. With this, Alvys was born.

‍What is Alvys?

Alvys is a modern, cloud-based end-to-end operating system for trucking companies. The platform connects carriers (the trucking companies) with shippers (their customers) and facilitates the entire transport process. This includes customer relationship management, fleet management, dispatch, procurement, tracking & fulfillment, payments & accounting, and more. 

By unifying data across departments, automating inefficient manual processes, and providing valuable analytics to better inform planning and pricing decisions,

Alvys enables these businesses to scale, and do so profitably - saving carriers and brokers more time per load than any other TMS (transportation management system).

The platform differentiates itself from conventional TMS offerings, in its specialization around workflow efficiencies and its depth of partnerships and integrations across the tech stack.

‍Exciting product features:

• Driver Mobile App
• Tracking & Tracing
• End to End Visibility 
• Sourcing for Truck Capacity
• One Click Accounting
• Analytics & Reporting
• Safety & Maintenance
• Industry Leading Integrations

‍What is Alvys’ market opportunity?

Alvys is targeting the 650,000+ underserved small and mid-sized trucking businesses in the US that have been struggling to run operations manually in an industry where innovation has largely centered around enterprise scale operations. The “one size fits all” approach has not worked well here, creating an exciting opportunity for Alvys to provide a solution purpose-built for this segment that is powerful, intuitive and cost effective. Persistent inflation, rising interest rates, market congestion, and continually fluctuating spot rates have had a particularly profound impact on these small and mid-sized trucking companies, making Alvys’ solution all the more critical. 

‍Why we love Alvys’ founders, Nick Darman (CEO) and Leo Gorodinski (CTO).

Our first, second, and third investment criteria, are team, team and team, and this team has a phenomenal profile.

Nick has one of our favorite founder profiles - it's someone who had success in the industry, recognized there were no good software solutions, and decided to invest the time and energy - and on this case, his own money - to build the solution that the entire industry needs.

Having grown up supporting his father’s carrier business and later building his own asset-based brokerage, Archerhub, Nick brings valuable industry experience with an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by small and mid-sized trucking companies. 

Leo brings technical expertise from his former role as VP of Engineering at Jet.com - which was acquired by Walmart for approximately $3B - he knows how to build a scalable software solution that can dominate an industry. We were immediately captivated by Nick and Leo and are excited about the opportunity that their complementary partnership will bring.

Given the distinct needs and dynamics in this segment of the market, having firsthand industry experience is essential for developing an effective TMS. This is why we were particularly excited about Nick and Leo’s backgrounds. 

‍What is something that really stood out during due diligence?

We knew Alvys was onto something special when nearly every customer we spoke to eagerly (and unpromptedly) shared demos of the platform to showcase its capabilities and just how impactful it has been in their lives. To say that customer love was apparent would still be a great understatement. Beyond attracting excited customers, Nick and Leo have also drawn in top tier talent - namely, Patrick MacKenzie, who joined Alvys as CRO in January 2023. Patrick brings nearly a decade of experience of scaling innovative SaaS companies revolutionizing more labor oriented industries - from the auto industry when he was VP of Revenue at Shopmonkey, to the home services industry when he was VP of Sales Development at ServiceTitan. 

‍What’s next for Alvys?

The next big opportunity for Alvys lies in EDI (electronic data exchange), which has been the longstanding method for information exchange between trading partners in the trucking industry, largely on a one-to-one basis. With large shippers like Walmart and P&G still relying on this outdated method, Alvys sees a great opportunity to offer a modern solution that connects carriers to these jobs through APIs - effectively building software that acts as a hub, allowing connectivity between the multitudes of marketplace participants. Funds from this round will be used to continue expanding partnerships and integrations, as well as making key hires in implementation, rev ops, sales, and customer support. Check out career opportunities at Alvys here!