Firm to use funds to further ease import/export burdens for businesses to simplify moving cargo across borders
December 13, 2021 (Santa Clara, CA) – KlearNow, the smart Logistics as a Service (LaaS) pioneer founded in 2018, raised $50M in new capital to transform broken supply chains—simplifying and providing real-time cargo visibility to the customs clearance and drayage processes. KlearNow’s AI-powered platform eases the worldwide supply chain disruptions that have left businesses grappling with delays and shortages.
The Series B investment was led by Kayne Partners Fund, the growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, with continued participation from existing investors including GreatPoint Ventures, Argean Capital, and Autotech Ventures, plus new investment from Activate Capital.
Though the global logistics market value is $8.6T, it is a highly fragmented and archaic industry and one of the last to embrace technology and collaborative innovation. The global pandemic has further exacerbated supply chain bottlenecks, accelerating the need for digital transformation.
Investors were drawn to KlearNow’s platform as it eases import/export burdens by digitizing and streamlining complex paper-based logistics processes—reducing manual entry times and human errors. The platform takes the digitized data to power its customs clearance marketplace, providing an unprecedented level of real-time end-to-end visibility, collaboration, and cost savings for its customers.
Since its $16M Series A funding round led by GreatPoint Ventures in January 2020, KlearNow.AI has grown exponentially, increasing its customer base tenfold and its monthly revenue run rate by more than 50 times. During this time, U.S.-based KlearNow.AI has expanded into Canada, and launched its UK service in January 2021 to support UK and EU businesses operating in the post-Brexit landscape.
KlearNow recently added a drayage marketplace to its smart LaaS platform to support drayage companies facing planning and scheduling challenges and importers demanding extended visibility. With both customs clearance and drayage marketplaces, KlearNow.AI provides a single view of multi-leg shipments from port of lading to the warehouse. The Series B investment strengthens KlearNow’s position as the go-to digital supply chain solution for businesses that trade across borders.
“This latest round of funding enables us to aggressively accelerate our technology development and deployment, geographical expansion, and talent investments, helping us transform supply chains that power commerce,” said Sam Tyagi, KlearNow.AI Founder and CEO. “We are excited to have strategic partners and investors with deep knowledge in this space, and we believe that with their support, our technology can lead to a meaningful, sustainable impact on global supply chains.”
“The supply chain and logistics industry is primed for incredible disruption in the upcoming years, and continued investment in technology and tech-enabled infrastructure is a critical component of the solution,” said Nishita Cummings, Managing Partner and Co-Head of Growth Equity at Kayne Partners. “KlearNow is the leading technology partner in this space, with an advanced AI-based platform that removes friction in moving goods across borders in an easy, efficient, and cost-effective manner.”
Ashok Krishnamurthi, Managing Partner at GreatPoint Ventures, added, “We are more excited than ever to have partnered with KlearNow. Digitalization has become mission-critical for supply chain logistics. KlearNow.AI provides tremendous value for the supply chain logistics ecosystem, demonstrated by the rapid adoption of its platform by importers, transporters, brokers, and freight forwarders. We are thrilled that KlearNow.AI has continued to expand beyond real-time shipment visibility, offering new unified workflows. During the pandemic lockdowns when the world and companies needed work from home capabilities, KlearNow.AI stepped up, unshackling employees from the office, scanners, and fax machines. With a smart digital solution, supply chain logistics teams were able to work remotely from home and leave the paper world behind. Visibility, productivity, and sustainability are a great combination.”
About KlearNow
KlearNow is transforming supply chains with its smart Logistics as a Service (LaaS) platform that connects data, people, processes, and organizations to enable new levels of visibility and productivity that reduce logistics costs and create better customer experiences. KlearNow’s customs clearance and drayage marketplaces on its AI-powered platform ease supply chain bottlenecks by digitizing paper-based transactions and enabling customs brokers and transporters to deliver superior real-time visibility needs of importers, exporters, and freight forwarders.
About Kayne Partners
Kayne Partners, the Los Angeles-based dedicated growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., leverages its large firm resources to partner and invest in lower middle market, privately held, high growth, enterprise software and tech-enabled service businesses across North America. The team has developed a durable and repeatable investment strategy and process for applying its stage expertise through sourcing and investing in companies at an early inflection point, adding value and scaling through organic growth and M&A, and exiting these must-have assets to strategics & financial sponsors. The team has experience investing across media & telecommunications, supply chain & logistics, financial technology, healthcare IT, security & compliance, and business process outsourcing and automation. For more information, please visit www.kaynepartners.com
About Kayne Anderson
Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., founded in 1984, is a leading alternative investment management firm focused on real estate, credit, infrastructure/energy, renewables, and growth equity. Kayne’s investment philosophy is to pursue niches, with an emphasis on cash flow, where our knowledge and sourcing advantages enable us to deliver above average, risk-adjusted investment returns. As responsible stewards of capital, Kayne’s philosophy extends to promoting responsible investment practices and sustainable business practices to create long-term value for our investors. Kayne manages over $30 billion in assets (as of 9/30/2021) for institutional investors, family offices, high net worth and retail clients and employs over 325 professionals in five core offices across the U.S.
To learn more about how KlearNow.AI can serve your firm, please visit www.klearnow.com.