The logistics industry is a capital intensive business, and M&A and investment activity says a lot about the technologies companies are betting their futures on.
We’ve previously profiled technology companies attacking the supply chain and logistics industry broadly and reported on the spike in funding these companies are seeing from corporates, smart money investors, and traditional VCs alike.
To understand where corporates in the space are investing and acquiring, we created a list of top pure-play logistics corporates operating in freight (air, ocean, and ground), and warehousing, based on annual reported revenue. We then used the CB Insights Business Social Graph to analyze the investment activity of these corporates from 2012 through 2016 YTD (12/6/16). Acquisitions are noted by the orange lines and investments are noted by the green lines.
The list includes 9 leading corporates that have backed or acquired at least one company since 2012.
- C.H. Robinson Worldwide
- FedEx Corporation
- Lineage Logistics
- Schneider
- Transplace
- Universal Truckload Services
- UPS
- UPS Capital
- UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund
- Werner Enterprises
- XPO Logistics
Business social graph
Click to enlarge.
Key takeaways
Since 2012, 63 investments or acquisitions have been completed by the above group of corporations.
- Of the 63 total investments and acquisitions, the top 3 most active corporations accounted for 41 deals. The most active corporations were UPS (via its three investing vehicles), FedEx Corporation, and Lineage Logistics, followed by XPO Logistics and C.H. Robinson Worldwide.
- The 9 logistics companies on our list have participated in 13 deals in 2016 YTD (12/6/16), 8 of which were acquisitions and 5 of which were capital investments. This is about the same pace of deals and acquisitions as in 2015, when these corporates completed 13 deals, including 7 acquisitions and 6 investments; and 2014, with 12 deals, including 6 acquisitions.
- The largest investment to-date is the $135M Series E financing of financial technology firm Kabbage which the UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund participated in 2015. UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund also participated in the largest investment of this year, investing in last-mile delivery company Deliv‘s $28M Series C.
- As for geographical distribution, all 9 of the most active logistics corporations are headquartered in the US.
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