Milwaukee logistics and business management software company Renaissant Inc. said Monday that it has successfully raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by TitletownTech, the venture capital partnership between the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft Corp.
The round also included significant participation from Interlock Partners and previous investor Venture 53, a logistics-focused venture capital fund in Richmond, Virginia, and Atlanta. NFI Ventures, another existing investor, and Perot Jain also took part in the round.
The capital raise comes 14 months after Renaissant closed on a $1.5 million seed round led by Venture 53, with participation from TitletownTech and NFI Ventures. That round closed May 11, 2023, a little over a year after Renaissant CEO Thomas Dean told Wisconsin Inno the firm planned to seek $5 million to $10 million in Series A funding in early 2023.
In May 2023, management said revenue growth and a determination that it didn't need to add as many staff as previously expected resulted in a reduction in funding needs.
Renaissant, founded in 2018, provides technology and data solutions for the flow of trucks and trailers into and out of warehouses and distribution centers. The company says it bridges the gap between siloed warehouse management, yard operations and truck driver platforms.
Initially, Renaissant’s main focus was expediting check-in for truck drivers upon their arrival at warehouses and factories, Dean said. Now the company has extended its service to yard-management for trucks and trailers, he said.
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The new capital will be used to enhance the platform and boost sales and marketing efforts, particularly in regions where the company is seeing significant demand for its solutions governing vehicle air pollution around logistics centers. Renaissant said it helped customers reduce driver dwell times by up to 50% within three months, reducing thousands of hours of wasted time daily and achieving millions of dollars in cost savings through automated scheduling, faster loading cycle times and reduced freight theft.
“Businesses of all kinds understand that they must get more efficient every year to compete, and there are very few ways to deploy software today that connects systems in a way that delivers near instant ROI," said Pat Martin, founder and general partner of Venture 53. "Renaissant does just that."
In March 2022, Renaissant announced a $1.07 million capital raise consisting of $770,000 in equity investments from individuals and a $300,000 technology development loan from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
Originally founded as IntelAegis, the startup rebranded as Renaissant in fall 2020 after shifting its focus from safety to logistics.
