NEW YORK — Optimal Dynamics, a provider of artificial intelligence-driven decision-making for transportation planning, has closed $33 million in Series B funding, less than one year after closing its Series A round.
The Westly Group led the investment, with Activate Capital, Standard Investments and existing investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, participating to complete the syndicate.
“We invest in transformative companies and technologies, and we put Optimal Dynamics in that category,” said Tim Wang, Managing Partner at The Westly Group. “Daniel and the team have really just scratched the surface of how we believe Optimal Dynamics will transform the transportation and logistics industry.”
Optimal Dynamics was founded to bring advanced AI to the logistics industry, helping companies automate and optimize operations. Since coming out of stealth mode in late 2020, Optimal Dynamics has quickly secured a growing roster of customers, ranging from 50-truck, middle-market for-hire carriers to the most well-regarded names in logistics. Carriers use the Optimal Dynamics platform to answer strategic, tactical and real-time questions about their businesses.
“We believe that Optimal Dynamics’ platform has the potential to transform the transportation industry,” said Nick Wheeler, Managing Director at Standard Investments. “We’ve received outstanding feedback from Hawk Logistics, Standard Industries’ transportation fleet, on how the platform has supported their growth and innovated their business model. As companies continue to navigate supply chain challenges, this round will help ensure that they can do so successfully.”
“Optimal Dynamics has been a game changer for our company. Their platform has opened up an array of growth opportunities that we’d never previously considered,” said Volker Bargenda, President of Hawk Logistics. “Thanks to their advanced AI applications, we’ve been able to hone in on new markets where we’ve accelerated hiring and expanded our presence.”
For Activate Capital, the investment in Optimal Dynamics is part of its larger thesis around logistics and supply chain transformation, according to Paul Jordan, Principal at Activate. “What attracted us to Optimal Dynamics is the deep intelligence the platform brings to transportation decision-making, given historic levels of uncertainty,” explained Jordan. “We believe the use of artificial intelligence will be critical to solving the intense challenges we’re all seeing across the industry today.”
The company will be using the new proceeds to accelerate hiring in critical areas to 1) drive future expansion and growth and 2) better enable its teams to deploy impactful products to its customers.
“This round reflects the tremendous momentum we have experienced over the past six months in revenue and customer adoption,” said Daniel Powell, co-founder and CEO. “For the first time, carriers are now able to use our advanced AI platform to solve real-world operational problems. It’s been both exhilarating and humbling to be at the forefront of this industry shift.”
