While digital highways are connecting more and more of the global supply chain — including linking every tractor-trailer in the U.S. to the internet — the founders of Axle said most trucking companies and logistics operators are still missing out on a wealth of data.
“We noticed that transportation and trucking companies, everyone from carriers, broker, shippers, they just weren’t getting the full value of technology that was available,” Dhruv Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Axle, told FreightWaves.
Gupta co-founded Axle in 2022 with Jinyan Zang, who serves as the company’s COO. Axle is a universal application programming interface for the trucking industry, with goals that include improving supply chain resilience, reducing fuel costs and ultimately making trucking a well-paid and sustainable career.
Last year, Gupta and Zang generated $2.6 million in a first-round fundraise that included One Way Ventures, NewBuild VC, Supply Chain Ventures, Agya Ventures, Ford Street Ventures, SNR, Helene Ventures, MAGIC Fund and Phoenix Fund, as well as the founders of Tive (Krenar Komoni) and Swoop (Sameer Bhalla).
Gupta and Zang met at Harvard several years ago and bonded over shared interests in data science, logistics, transportation and micromobility.
“Axle really came about because of both of our shared interests and the stars aligning and it was time to kick off a company together to build something for truckers,” Zang said. “It was taking all that expertise that we have when it comes to technology and this industry, which has seen an explosion of new companies, and the need for data to power all these new services.”
Axle’s universal data platform gathers intelligence from various sources — such as electronic logging devices and transportation management systems — into a framework that allows tech companies to offer more solutions to freight transporters and logistics companies.
