About $19 trillion worth of goods are exported globally annually. But despite the scope of global trade, logistics was, until recently, not on the tech radar. An analysis of top technology media sites since 2007 found over 2,000 mentions of a popular social media tool, while “freight” and “cargo” were referenced less than 600 times.
Slow technology progress in logistics makes sense. Huge industries push back against change, and it’s difficult for entrepreneurs to balance deep industry familiarity with the drive required to take on industry status quos. Finally, typical B2B challenges, like long sales cycles, incumbent legacy software, and memories of the dramatic B2B crash in 2000, loom.
But enterprise tech is in the crosshairs. Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, believes that more than one trillion dollars will be spent annually on enterprise software, up from $330 million. And this freight train of enterprise tech is finally reaching logistics. As a matter of fact, venture capital funds have invested over one billion dollars in the sector since January 2014, double the total invested in the sector over the previous five years.