Freight fintech startup Outgo raises $15M to help trucking carriers access cash quickly – GeekWire

Outgo, a Seattle-based startup that sells banking services to freight carriers, revealed that it raised $15 million in an investment round last year.

The fresh cash, along with a $50 million credit facility, were previously not disclosed.

Founded in 2021, Outgo is one of many VC-backed logistics startups using technology to reimagine back-end supply chain processes.

Its finance software helps trucking companies manage invoice processing and payment collection in one place.

Outgo is also designed to help carriers with factoring, or the ability to access cash quickly while running their businesses. They typically wait 30 days or longer to receive payment from customers.

Outgo charges a fee of 2.5% of less when carriers need to make purchases. There are no monthly or annual contracts.

The idea is to provide funds more quickly — within four hours — and with lower fees than competing factoring companies.

“We’ve built software on top of a bank to provide an all-in-one solution to help carriers run their business more thoughtfully, with more flexibility, and ultimately save them time and money,” said Marcus Womack, the company’s CEO and co-founder.

Outgo partners with Blue Ridge Bank, TransPecos Bank, and other banking providers.

The recent trucking slowdown has actually been somewhat of a tailwind for Outgo, Womack said.

“The need for factoring or getting paid early on your invoices became necessary to run your business in one of the hardest freight economies in a long time,” he said.

Outgo is applying automation and AI tools to its own product to help drive down costs, Womack said.

Womack didn’t provide specific metrics related to customers or revenue, but said the company is “growing nicely.”

Womack founded Outgo with Mike Bohlander and Ray Fortna.

The trio first worked together at iLike, an online social music service that sold to MySpace in 2009. Then they co-founded Familiar, a photo app acquired by Evidence.com, a business unit of police body camera maker Axon (previously known as Taser).

Womack was most recently a product leader for Uber while Bohlander and Fortna spent time as principal software engineers at Convoy, the Seattle-based digital trucking marketplace that collapsed last year.

Gradient Ventures in the Bay Area and Construct Capital out of Washington D.C. led the latest funding round. Other backers include Neo, Seattle’s PSL Ventures, Bezos Expeditions (the investment office of Jeff Bezos), Fintech Fund, Operator Stack, and Upper90.

Outgo secured the $50 million credit facility from Upper90 to help with receivables purchasing.

Funding to date is more than $19 million. The company has 25 employees.

Total venture funding to supply chain startups has dropped substantially this year from the boom times of 2021 and 2022, and isn’t likely to reach 2023 levels, according to Crunchbase.