VC funds offer $20M for e-logistics
Two venture capital funds announced they would make $20 million available in a joint-venture specifically aimed at companies bringing e-commerce to the transportation and logistics industries.
The two companies are Ionian Ventures and Fenway Partners, both based in New York.
This will be music to the ears of struggling transportation dot-coms, who have suffered along with the rest of the e-commerce pioneers in a market where confidence in the power of the Internet to transform business has plummeted since the beginning of the year.
“With 10% of the U.S. GDP allocated to getting products to market and an estimated $1 trillion in international spending on IT for global logistics by 2001, the opportunity to leverage developing technologies and concurrent trends in outsourcing of logistics needs presents an exciting opportunity for investment,” said Claire Milonas, general partner of Ionian Ventures.
” We believe that logistics is a promising area and are committed to participating in the growth of the sector through the partnership with Ionian Ventures,” Bill Donner, managing director at Fenway responsible for technology investment activity. The $20 million put into the fund is just for starters, the companies said.
But dot-com directors looking for some of the honey pot better hurry. The joint venture has already made investments in ShipServ, an online procurement services company serving the maritime industry, and myCustoms, a cross-border trade management software company.
