When it comes to finding a good capital partner, Matt Silver, the co-founder and CEO of cross-border digital freight marketplace Forager, said the startup has been lucky to attract backers who understand its business. Among them: Montreal-based TFI International (NYSE:TFII), one of the largest trucking and logistics companies in North America, led Forager’s pre-seed round.
“You’re looking for someone who believes in what you’re doing equally with what they’re doing, and they buy into your vision for the world as much as you buy into theirs,” Silver told WHAT THE TRUCK?!? co-hosts Timothy Dooner and Michael Vincent during FreightWaves’ FreightTech Venture Summit on Wednesday.
Chicago-based Forager has raised $15 million since its founding in late 2018, counting TFI, Chicago Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners as its largest investors. “We’ve added a lot of investors along the way,” Silver said.
One of the challenges in finding investors, Silver noted, is dealing with a range of fluency in the transportation and logistics industry.
“I have had everything from explaining what a truck is and what a shipper is to someone I talked to earlier today that knew everything about telematics systems and APIs,” Silver said.
“It’s been complicated, very similar to dating,” Silver added.
Forager recently updated SCOUT, a cross-border freight booking and pricing platform for shippers. It features instant quotes and pricing transparency.
“We want SCOUT to be a place any shipper can go for a cross-border shipment,” he said.
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