JobNimbus raises $330M to accelerate growth
News and highlights from Distribution Technology
Hi everyone,
As we head into the holiday season, there’s been a lot of activity in the world of Distribution Technology. We wanted to take a moment and highlight some of the things we’re reading – including fundraise announcements, product launches and partnerships.
On a somber note, Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot, and Tom Tracy, a member of the Dot Foods family, both passed away this past week. Both The Home Depot and Dot Foods are companies that have had a big impact on the world of B2B distribution, and the passings of Bernie and Tom are a loss for the industry.
Here’s tech and B2B distribution news that we’ve had our eye on:
Xometry, B2B marketplace in metal machining, achieves Record Revenue
Trimble hosts annual event with participation from Kojo CEO
Curri, leading last mile logistics marketplace, launches ability to choose specific hitch type inside their app
Choco CEO interviewed about company’s transition from SaaS to 100% AI revenue
Vendr launches price transparency tool for B2B SaaS purchases – a warning sign for B2B Distribution
JobNimbus raises $330M from private equity
Prokeep raises $25M Series A
ServiceTitan and SRS announce strategic partnership
QXO appoints Chief AI officer
Xometry Achieves Record Revenue, AI cited as contributing factor.
Xometry is the leading B2B marketplace for OEM’s to procure machine-made parts. With a network of over 5,000 machine shops, Xometry automates the procurement process for the OEM customer. They are one of the few B2B marketplaces that’s publicly listed and can provide great insight for B2B marketplace investors. Their recent quarterly earnings reveled record revenue and strong growth, attributed to their investments in AI. Read more from their earnings press release.
Curri launches “choose your own hitch” capability
Curri – an Applico Capital portfolio company and the leading marketplace for last-mile delivery - just launched a new product offering: choose your own hitch. Distributors can book a Curri hotshot and choose which kind of hitch they need - all inside the regular booking flow. This feature is impressive for a couple reasons:
It shows the maturity of the Curri network - they need to have a lot of trucks on the platform for a feature like this to make sense and work properly
It shows the uniqueness of B2B deliveries as compared to B2C and the attention to detail needed to meet the fulfillment needs of B2B distributors
See the full product launch announcement on LinkedIn.
Trimble Construction Conference wraps, Kojo CEO presents
Trimble recently concluded its Dimensions conference in Las Vegas. With over 800 different sessions, builders, contractors and the construction industry could choose from a wide range of topics at this 4-day event. One of our keynotes from the Innovators Summit also held a session – Maria Davidson, CEO of Kojo posted on her LinkedIn about her presentation.
Choco transitions from SaaS to AI revenue
The Founder & CEO of Choco, Daniel Kachab, the leading digital commerce solution for food distributors, recently gave an interview talking about his company’s transition from SaaS revenue to 100% of AI revenue. Daniel speaks about the importance of going “all-in” on AI and how SaaS founders can get stuck trying to do AI, but without fully embracing a complete overhaul of the business through an AI lens. Watch the interview on Youtube.
Vendr launches Price Transparency tool
Vendr launched a free tool for companies to price check their SaaS vendors. A B2B Distributor’s worst nightmare. The barriers to entry for price comparison tools are a bit lower in the pure-software world. After all, you don’t need someone to physically move the product. However, we’ve also seen this concept play out successfully in other areas of B2B distribution. For example, in the Vet distribution vertical, Vetcove allows vet clinics to upload their invoices and Vetcove will price compare all the distributors’ prices in one “single pane of glass.” Vendr is doing the same thing with SaaS tools. We’re seeing these kinds of price comparison tools pop up in more B2B verticals. See the Vendr CEO’s full post on the product.
ProKeep Raises $25M Series A
ProKeep, one of our original Innovators from the Innovators Summit and a leading tool for chat and text communications in the construction industry, just announced the completion of their Series A fundraise for $25M. Congratulations to Jack and the whole ProKeep team!