Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity firm, has closed on its acquisition of the Shipper TMS portion of the supply chain optimization software business portfolio owned by Wabtec Corp.
The acquisition will support new services from PINC, a digital yard management company, Accel-KKR said in a press release. The firm completed a significant growth equity investment in PINC in June.
Wabtec’s Shipper TMS business is known under the brands ShipperConnect and ShipXpress, which provide cloud-based multimodal shipment management applications to customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Shippers, such as those moving bulk commodities in the energy, mining, agricultural, metals and chemical verticals, turn to multimodal shipments — rail and truck — to improve reliability, cost efficiency and sustainability.
Among its key capabilities, Shipper TMS provides yard management, shipment visibility, rate management and bulk inventory management that allow for an accurate and timely flow of information to all parties in the supply chain from origin to final destination.
The acquisition will aid in PINC’s goal to expand its digital yard management and transportation management solutions to help clients optimize complex supply chains, Vice President of Marketing Rafael Granato told FreightWaves.
“A multimodal technology solution like Shipper TMS is one of several natural extensions where we can deliver value enterprisewide and enable our customers to automate and optimize their complex supply chains further,” Granato said.
Founded in 2004, PINC digitizes yard management, providing turnkey and software-as-a-service (SaaS) yard management and supply chain visibility products.
The combined businesses will allow PINC to add hundreds of customer locations, according to Granato, plus the products and the organization involved in building, selling, implementing and supporting the solutions.
Elaborating on the impacts, Granato said the merged units will serve as a foundation for a supply chain execution (SCE) platform focused on transportation management software solutions for shippers.
The platform will prioritize offerings that serve the origin and termination points in the supply chain with a specific focus on rail, truck and terminal yard management.
“Combined with real-time visibility, electronic documentation, analytics, billing, rating and carrier management functionalities, the SCE platform is well-positioned to solve multiple transportation challenges in the supply chain industry,” Granato said.
The Wabtec TMS acquisition is the latest in a trifecta of events spurring growth at PINC. In August the company joined forces with supply chain Internet of Things platform project44 to enhance real-time visibility and automation solutions for carriers and shippers.
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