Overhaul acquires supply chain security firm SensiGuard

Deal gives Austin, Texas-based supply chain security company global footprint

Noi Mahoney

2 years ago

With a goal of expanding its international reach, Overhaul recently acquired cargo theft monitoring platform SensiGuard.

With the acquisition, Overhaul looks to gain more market share in the global supply chain security space by adding established offices in Brazil, Mexico and the Czech Republic.

Overhaul is a software-based, supply-chain visibility, risk, compliance and insurance solutions provider based in Austin, Texas.

“We’re merging our U.S. operation with our operations in Dundalk, Ireland, where we have a very strong presence with the added offices,” Overhaul founder and CEO Barry Conlon told FreightWaves. “These offices all complement each other, so Prague complements Dundalk, which complements Mexico City and Sao Paulo and our offices in the U.S.”

Overhaul is acquiring SensiGuard from Sensitech, a Boston-based global solutions provider for supply chain risks, as well as temperature-control monitoring of shipments. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Conlon said manufacturers, shippers and companies are looking for supply chain security providers that not only have a global presence but can provide solutions in any part of the world.

While exact data on cargo theft is hard to pin down because many instances go unreported, it is estimated by the FBI that between $3.5 billion and $10 billion worth of cargo is stolen every year in the U.S. alone.

“It truly is a requirement that you do have this kind of regional presence and that you cannot just report problems — you can fix them,” Conlon said. “We use visibility to give us the insights to say to our shippers or customers, ‘You have a problem. This shipment or these guys are in noncompliance.’ We have to fix it for our customers and to do that we actually need these control towers in different countries. That’s really what the acquisition brought us, a global business that we can now do at scale globally. That’s exactly what our customers are looking for.”

The acquisition also expands Overhaul’s workforce from about 300 to 650 employees. The deal also expands the company’s book of business, adding some of the biggest names in high tech, pharmaceuticals and other logistics service providers, Colon said.

Overhaul employs device-agnostic supply chain visibility and risk management software that can be used for in-transit cargo risk management, along with real-time visibility solutions. The company also provides compliance and insurance solutions for its customers.

Coincidentally, Conlon sold a company called FreightWatch International to Sensitech in 2012, so acquiring SensiGuard is essentially regaining control of an “old asset.”

“We’re in a position where I suppose then the challenge that our old comrades had was that they were really caught behind the technology curve,” Conlon said. “We have the technology. They had the footprint. They had a lot of really great customers and really great people who are very knowledgeable in this space. For us, it was truly a match made in heaven.”