We recently sat down for a video interview with Dan Tram, investment director at Volvo Group Venture Capital, Volvo Group’s corporate investment house. Volvo Group Venture Capital’s focus is on areas in which technology-based innovation results in new solutions that improve the profitability of customers and enable new business opportunities for the Volvo Group. It invests in transport solutions for a safer, sustainable and prosperous world, and in new business models that realize the value of data.
Volvo participated in FourKites’ recent Series D funding round because it saw FourKites as part of its vision to bring new solutions to market, improve sustainable transportation, and build the next-generation ecosystem of connected trucks and shippers. In this interview, Dan shared how FourKites can help Volvo achieve its strategic goals, and how the two companies could collaborate on future solutions.
Q: What led Volvo Venture Capital Group to participate in FourKites’ most recent Series D growth funding round?
A: I believe that there’s no good reason why consumers can track a $5 pizza order, but shippers can’t track their orders at every stage. We’re excited because the investment in FourKites helps provide better services to their customers so they can track their goods, no matter the stage of the journey.
FourKites has impressive real-time tracking solutions, which inspired us to invest, but we believe this is just the beginning of their journey toward industry disruption.
Q: How will FourKites help Volvo Group achieve its strategic goals?
A: Volvo wants to lead by example and have the world’s most sustainable in-house logistics system by 2025. Through our investment in FourKites, our goal is to create solutions together that drastically cut down supply chain-related carbon emissions.
Additionally, Volvo aims to generate more than 50% of revenues through services and solutions by 2030. We believe that investing in companies like FourKites will help Volvo achieve its goals.
Q: Why is this investment and partnership with FourKites so pivotal to the industry?
A: We see that FourKites has the potential to disrupt the supply chain management software market and become a category leader. We believe this can happen through developing connected real-time visibility across applications.
“I was impressed by FourKites’ real-time tracking capabilities and where they’re going, providing predictive estimated time of arrival for shipments. It’s just the beginning of many more value-add products that FourKites can provide.”
– Dan Tram, Investment Director at Volvo Group Venture Capital
You can watch the full interview with Dan here:
