San Francisco-based logistics startup Flexport on Thursday relaunched Convoy's trucking network.
Seattle-based Convoy, which hit a valuation of $3.8 billion in 2022, abruptly closed in October of last year. Flexport purchased the shuttered company's technology in November for an undisclosed amount, bringing on a small number of employees.
"Today's launch of the Convoy Platform furthers Flexport's product vision to build a true one-stop-shop to ship any product," Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen said in a news release.
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Flexport has branded Convoy as the Convoy Platform on Convoy's overhauled website. Truckers can use the platform to find and bid on loads through an app. The goal is to reduce the number of empty miles truckers spend on the road. The app also allows truckers to get paid quickly.
According to Flexport, the company will launch a service for brokers in the second quarter.
Former Convoy CEO Dan Lewis said in a LinkedIn post he was proud of the relaunch. He is now listed as a technical adviser to Flexport on LinkedIn.
"The feedback from the trucking community has been amazing. Day one hit nearly 200 loads," Lewis wrote.
Lewis and Grant Goodale co-founded Convoy in 2015 as a way to connect shippers to trucking companies. The company had clients like Unilever, The Home Depot and Anheuser-Busch, and it raised $260 million between equity funding and venture debt in April 2022. After that, however, the company conducted multiple rounds of layoffs as the freight market struggled.
When Lewis in October announced the company was shutting down, a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification disclosed 533 layoffs in Seattle.
Early investors in Convoy included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and former Starbucks President Howard Behar.
In addition to its San Francisco headquarters, Flexport has a Bellevue hub. The company offers services in air freight, ocean freight and customs brokerage.
Petersen in September 2022 handed the CEO reigns to former Amazon executive Dave Clark. Petersen took back control of Flexport in September of last year when Clark stepped down.
