A local automotive logistics startup just raised millions in fresh funding as industry demand accelerates — and as it charges forward with a new CEO.
Rockville’s Autosled Inc. has secured $5 million in new financing to bulk up its team in the face of increasing demand for its tech platform, which facilitates communication, tracking and payments between drivers and shippers.
The funding, announced Wednesday, came a day after the company announced former Tesla Inc. exec Leon Keshishian as Autosled’s new CEO. Now, the company said, he’s focused on scaling the business for faster growth, raising more money and acquiring new talent.
“We’ve grown very quickly, and hiring the staff fast enough to meet that need is our biggest challenge right now,” Keshishian said in an email to the Washington Business Journal. The company, now with roughly 36 employees, is hiring for positions in technology, customer support and sales, he said. It’s also working to grow its network of dealer partners and transporters on a national level, completing thousands of moves each month with about 1,000 dealers on board currently. That’s in addition to a "small but growing" consumer business, in which Autosled moves cars for seasonal moves and permanent relocations.
The new money
The Series A round was led by Lyndon Rive, who in 2006 co-founded San Mateo, California-based SolarCity — now Tesla Energy — with Pete, his brother, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, his cousin. Andrew Leto, founder of Scottsdale, Arizona-based freight procurement marketplace Emerge, participated in the round via his early-stage investment family office, Arcturus Venture. Also among the investors: Dave Baggett, CEO of College Park’s Inky Technology Corp., as well as a group from Georgetown University’s Georgetown Angel Investor Network.
The funding brings Autosled’s lifetime funding to more than $7 million.
Autosled’s customer base comprises anyone selling or moving a car — from auctions to manufacturers to consumers. Autosled declined to disclose specific revenue figures, but Keshishian said the company is currently generating about $1 million in gross revenue per month. The business has quadrupled in the last year and “plans to continue on that same growth rate” going forward, he said. The industry sees 40 to 50 million cars moved every year, “and distributed inventories are becoming more diverse with consumer online purchasing and shifts in dealers' need for used cars,” he said. “It is a multibillion-dollar sector.”
The opportunity is massive, expected to grow from more than $262 billion in 2021 to more than $393 billion by 2028, according to a recent Fortune Business Insights report. And though the space has competition, the majority of the marketplace comprises regional brokers.
“We’re creating this market at a national level,” Keshishian told us. “Right now, there isn’t really another national company in the sector.
Autosled has seen through the coronavirus crisis, which stirred up more hunger for its service within the auto industry, Keshishian said. “The secondary market has seen unprecedented growth, auctions have continued to increase, the [electric vehicle] market has taken off, supply chain issues have been a problem, new car shortages, a move to consumers purchasing cars online — all these make more efficient transport even more critical.”
The new appointments
Autosled has also appointed entrepreneur and investor John Stewart to its board of directors. Stewart founded data mapping tool MapAnything in 2006 and led the business to its 2019 sale to San Francisco’s Salesforce for an undisclosed sum. He’s also an investor in Emerge and other companies, and brings to the board a background in next-generation logistical systems, according to Autosled.
Keshishian went to high school with Autosled’s co-founders, brothers David and Dan Sperau. They reconnected during the Covid-19 pandemic and brought him on as a board adviser in April 2021, specifically to help with strategic planning and fundraising.
“After working with him over several months in that capacity, and witnessing his ability to develop strategic plans, hire top talent and position operations for scalable growth, we were excited to have him join us full time,” David Sperau, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Autosled, said in a statement.
Before coming to Autosled, Keshishian helped start and grow multiple companies. He co-founded Rockville’s Clean Currents LLC, which he led before and after SolarCity acquired the business 2011. He then shifted to Tesla following its $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity, until stepping away in 2018 to found asset management company KWH Care. That firm merged with Charleston, South Carolina, green energy company Palmetto Solar, where Keshishian became chief operating officer.
David Sperau and Dan Sperau, Autosled’s chief financial officer, founded their startup in 2019 to cut the stress out of the vehicle-shipping process. The company’s two-sided marketplace uses artificial intelligence to drive its pricing and load systems, and its consumer-facing online platform aims to make the shipping process more transparent for vehicle owners.
