According to breaking news from the The Information, Uber has selected Dara Khosrowshahi as its next CEO. According to wikipedia, Dara served as the CEO of IAC Travel before joining Expedia. He has also held positions at Allen & Company, a well known investment banking firm in Silicon Valley.
While it is not known what the future of Uber Freight is or whether the new CEO will continue to invest in the business-unit or will go back to its roots as a consumer-based business, from all appearances things appear to be scaling up. According to industry sources FreightWaves staff spoke with, Uber Freight’s volume continues to accelerate and they are planning to expand into other regions across the US. They continue to push accelerated payment for fleets, paying in seven days or less.
Uber Freight had a large presence at GATs this past weekend with a force of at least 20 representatives present and sponsoring a large event for drivers. The company has also been featured in a number of media outlets regarding its push into freight, including in an article featured on FreightWaves.
Regardless of whether Uber continues to invest in Uber Freight, digital freight brokerage is here to stay. According to industry sources, Convoy is currently in the lead as it relates to freight bill volume among the pure-play digital freight brokers. Having raised an eye-popping amount of money ($62M in its most recent raise) from investors like Jeff Bezos, Reed Hoffmann, Henry Kravis, and Bill Gates, Convoy is able to fund growth by using investor cash to gain market-share and beef up its technology to optimize freight transactions.
Julian Counihan, founding partner of Schematic Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund told FreightWaves, “the ‘Uber for freight’ category is very visible and has received a lot of attention,” he says. “I believe that if you have capital … you can build a successful freight brokerage. The question will be, does the investment make financial sense? To achieve venture returns on a freight brokerage investment priced at a valuation multiple far above public comparables, these businesses will have to demonstrate new technology to drive radical margin improvement and reach never-before-seen levels of growth – things large, sophisticated freight brokers have been attempting for years.”
