Software company CartonCloud has successfully completed a capital raise of $12 million from MA Financial to fund expansion into the North American logistics market and further develop its transport and warehouse management system.
Headquartered in Burleigh on the Gold Coast, CartonCloud’s pioneering SaaS-based technology allows warehouse, transport and third-party logistics businesses to compete with major players in the industry, through delivering innovative and affordable software that enables businesses to optimise their operation and grow.
The home-grown business, which has more than 350 customers predominately across Australia and New Zealand, has received significant in-bound interest from prospective off-shore customers over the last 18 months.
MA Financial backed CartonCloud’s growth strategy to expand to Canada and the United States and continue development of its logistics software capabilities. It marks the first time that the company has taken institutional capital.
MA Financial’s investment in CartonCloud comes as demand for warehouse and transport management solutions grows significantly with supply chain volumes increasing across the globe.
CartonCloud’s warehouse, transport and integrated 3PL management systems allows SMEs across B2B and B2C to enhance their operations with better integrations, flexible and efficient workflows, enhanced recipient experience (for last mile providers), automated data entry and admin, and plenty more.
CartonCloud CEO and founder Vincent Fletcher said the MA Financial investment represented a significant milestone for the software company, which began development in 2012 in a cold store and freight business in Sydney’s western suburbs.
“We now have the ability to significantly increase our headcount, fast-track development to roll out new features and expand to North America,” Mr Fletcher said.
“Entering the massive US logistics industry and building a team there opens up extraordinary opportunities for CartonCloud to secure new customers, build new industry partnerships and continue to improve our product for all of our global customers.
“The raise enables us to capitalise on the significant interest we have received from prospective customers in the United States and Canada and seize new opportunities.
“We’re looking forward to increasing our research and development, expanding the team and having the ability to roll out new features and product updates sooner, so we can keep our customers ahead of the game.
The investment marks a milestone for the company, providing the foundation to increase the size of its software development and engineering team to fast-track a pipeline of product upgrades. Building on their success in the Australian and New Zealand industries, the capital raise will also support the establishment of a local presence in North America and Canada to service those markets.
Mr Fletcher said the decision to transact with MA Financial came naturally.
“MA Financial were transparent, easy to deal with, showed a strong cultural fit and have a growing team well placed to assist CartonCloud to achieve its ambitions,” Mr Fletcher said.
Will Botha, investment director at MA Financial’s Growth Capital team, said CartonCloud was an excellent example of a mission-critical software solution.
“CartonCloud is 100 percent focused on customer value,” Mr Botha said. “We are pleased to support the next phase of their growth.”
The MA Financial investment follows a $1 million capital raise through High-Net-Worth individuals in 2017, which supplemented a $1 million grant through the Queensland Business Development Fund.
Vincent reflects that “Nick Capell and the broader QBDF team have been exceptional allies over the last 3 years. The QBDF was a fantastic initiative by the Queensland Government to assist Queensland-based start-ups get up and running.”
During both the 2017 and 2021 raises, Platform Advisory Partners advised Mr Fletcher in navigating options for CartonCloud. Mr Fletcher was provided the opportunity to meet many potential investors and assess the different operating models and expectations of VCs, Family Offices and High-Net-Worth individuals.
Platform Advisory Partners recommended a non-traditional path via close personal contacts who had the investment appetite and expertise to assist with the scale-up of CartonCloud.
Thomas Petrakos from Platform Advisory Partners, who had been closely advising CartonCloud, praised Mr Fletcher’s keen business sense and fortitude, saying he was Mr Fletcher was a great founder with an incredible opportunity in front of him.
“Vincent had great domain experience, tech development skills and the hustle to fly coast to coast and land his first 70 logistics customers,” Mr Petrakos said.
“We thought, let’s back him ourselves.”
Executives from Platform Advisory Partners set terms and led the investment from which a number of prominent technology entrepreneurs and HNWs followed. The investment round was structured to align closely with the criteria of the Queensland Business Development Fund.
Since the 2017 raise, CartonCloud has experienced consistent Year-on-Year growth of 45 per cent while the number of clients has jumped from 60 to more than 350. In 2021 alone, CartonCloud clients used the platform to invoice more than $1 billion worth of freight.
The CartonCloud team now consists of more than 40 employees, most of which are software developers with logistics industry experience dedicated to enhancing the capabilities of the warehouse and transport management systems.
“Our growth and the success of the CartonCloud software comes from a deep understanding of the key issues and trends impacting our industry,” Mr Fletcher said.
“CartonCloud is built to be the solution for the pain points in our industry.
“We are dedicated to constantly increasing our software’s functionality to allow SMEs to streamline their workflow, optimise operations to get greater yield from the resources they have, and effectively plan for the future.”
