Vooma Scores Over $16 Million in Seed and Series A Funding Led by Index and Craft Ventures

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 2, 2024--

Vooma, a powerful and fast-growing AI platform designed for freight brokers and carriers of all sizes, today announced it secured $13 million in Series A funding led by Craft Ventures. The Series A adds to a previous $3.6 million seed round led by Index Ventures with participation from angel investors including founders and executives from major logistics and technology companies such as Motive, Project44, Ryder and Uber Freight. The investments in Vooma, driven by strong customer demand, underscore the company’s market potential and technology, and accelerate its trajectory for continuing growth.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241202150186/en/

Vooma’s AI platform empowers logistics companies to more rapidly and efficiently scale their operations by reducing time spent on tedious and manual work and creating space to solve real logistical challenges, while also investing in relationships that are critical to success. The company has built Vooma Agents, the first-of-its-kind multi-channel AI platform for logistics. Agents built on Vooma’s platform can operate across email, text and voice channels, allowing for automation in workflows that were previously unaddressable by existing systems.

Since its launch in 2023, Vooma has attracted many of the logistics industry’s top brokers and carriers as customers, including Echo, MODE, Arrive Logistics and NFI. Vooma has grown revenue by 12.5x, increased transaction volume by over 32x and built hundreds of thousands of loads. The company is also partnering with leading communication, pricing and transportation management systems including Front, Greenscreens.ai, McLeod and Turvo.

Vooma’s new funding will be invested towards growing the team across engineering, go-to-market and customer success to support mounting demand for products powered by Vooma Agents:

“Relationships are critical for our company’s success,” said Jack Twyman, Chief Customer and Digital Officer at MoLo Solutions, a top-15 freight broker. “Vooma’s platform effectively integrates with our systems and allows our team and our customers to gain efficiency, without changing how we do business. We can offload rote tasks to stay focused on customer service and work that requires the human touch so we can keep building meaningful relationships to drive our business forward.”

Vooma was founded by two logistics and technology experts — Jesse Buckingham, former CEO of ASG LogisTech, and Mike Carter, former employee #2 and founding engineer at Kodiak Robotics — who have built a strong team of talent with deep industry experience. The company is dedicated to delivering powerful and reliable AI solutions designed to empower the entire logistics workforce.

“The United States moves approximately 11.5 billion tons of truckloads annually, and moving freight from point A to B requires hundreds of touchpoints between shippers, brokers and carriers,” noted Buckingham. “By introducing AI that fits naturally into existing systems, workflows and communication channels used across the industry, we are meaningfully reducing the tasks people dislike and freeing up their time and headspace for more meaningful and complex challenges.”

“We are at an inflection point where cross-channel digital agents powered by AI and LLMs will transform the way we work,” added Carter. “Vooma’s cross-channel agent is delivering against AI’s immense potential for the logistics industry.”

“Transportation is the backbone of the U.S. economy,” said Lainy Painter Singh, Partner at Craft Ventures. “The Vooma team has a deep understanding of the end market and appreciation for the complexity of its systems. We believe the company will not only delight customers with AI solutions that make their businesses more efficient, but help solve the industry’s most pressing challenges.”

Additional investors in Vooma’s Series A include Definition Capital, HOF Capital, Soma Capital, Operator Stack Fund and Index Ventures.

About Vooma

Vooma is the AI agent for logistics. Vooma takes care of tedious work for brokers and carriers so they can focus on winning freight, serving customers and building relationships that grow their businesses. Learn more at vooma.com and explore exciting opportunities to join our team here.

Vooma founders Jesse Buckingham (left) and Mike Carter (right). (Photo: Business Wire)

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — The candidate for Namibia's ruling party led Monday in early results of a presidential election characterized by technical problems which caused voting to be extended for three days.

The opposition has rejected the results and claimed the extension was illegal, undermining the vote in a southern African country that has a largely smooth history of elections and is praised as one of the region's more stable democracies. Final results are expected this week, with opposition parties saying they will challenge the validity of the election in court.

The problems in last Wednesday's election, which included a shortage of ballot papers and other issues, led election authorities to allow some polling stations to stay open until Saturday.

The issues threaten to overshadow any result, with Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the ruling SWAPO party a strong contender to become Namibia's first female leader.

The 72-year-old Nandi-Ndaitwah, a former member of Namibia's underground independence movement, had around 56% of the vote in the partial results published Monday. Only 220,000 of the approximately 1.4 million votes cast have been counted. Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change opposition party is second with 27% of the vote.

Namibians voted for president and for the makeup of Parliament in a large but sparsely populated country on the southwest coast of Africa that has swathes of desert running through it. Namibia has been governed by SWAPO since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.

While Nandi-Ndaitwah offers a chance at history, SWAPO has faced frustration from Namibians struggling with a high unemployment rate and other economic hardships, especially among young people. Government corruption scandals have tarnished its reputation as the country's liberator.

The Independent Patriots for Change said it expected to file a legal challenge against the election this week. Other opposition parties said they will join the case.

"It is about our country, it’s about our democratic credentials, it’s about the country that must work for everybody, the poor and the rich. It cannot only work for those who want to remain in power by hook or (by) crook,” said McHenry Venaani, the leader of the opposition Popular Democratic Movement and a candidate in the presidential election.

The Electoral Commission of Namibia which organized the election said there will not be a rerun despite opposition demands.

Other ruling parties in southern Africa have faced a mood of discontent this year.

In neighboring South Africa, the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela, lost its 30-year majority and had to form a coalition to stay in government and keep hold of the presidency. The Botswana Democratic Party was stunningly swept from power in that country after governing for 58 years since independence from Britain.

In Mauritius, the incumbent party also lost in a landslide, while Mozambique's Frelimo party was accused of rigging an October election, sparking large and ongoing protests against its long rule.

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Namibians queue to cast their votes in a presidential election in Windhoek, Namibia Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibians inside a polling station votes in a presidential election in Windhoek, Namibia Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibians queue to cast their votes in a presidential election in Windhoek, Namibia Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibians queue to cast their votes in a presidential election in Windhoek, Namibia Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

A woman sits as Namibians queue to cast their votes in a presidential election in Windhoek, Namibia Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibians queue to cast their votes in presidential elections in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibians queue to cast their votes in presidential elections in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibia's vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, of the ruling South West Africa People's Organization, (SWAPO) waves as she casts her vote in a presidential election in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Esther Mbathera)