Welcome back to the latest episode of The Future of Automotive on CBT News, where we put recent automotive and mobility news into the context of the broader themes impacting the industry.
I’m Steve Greenfield from Automotive Ventures, and I’m glad that you could join us this week.
I’m thrilled to announce an investment in Upwell out of our new Mobility Fund II.
Automotive Ventures is dedicated to identifying and supporting innovative solutions that address critical challenges within the transportation and logistics sectors.
This week, we are excited to announce our investment in Upwell, a payment automation platform that has recently secured a $6.5 million seed funding round led by Vertical Venture Partners.
What problem is Upwell Solving?
The logistics industry is often burdened by financial inefficiencies, particularly in accounts receivable and billing processes. Traditional manual methods are not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, leading to delayed payments and strained business relationships.
Managing accounts receivable in logistics is fraught with inefficiencies. Companies juggle multiple systems, manually enter data, and deal with invoice exceptions—all of which contribute to delayed payments, increased operational costs, and strained business relationships.
The logistics sector, responsible for over $800 billion in annual freight spend, relies heavily on outdated processes that slow down cash flow and create unnecessary administrative burdens.
The industry faces many challenges, including:
Multiple Touchpoints: Freight management involves numerous systems—TMS, payment portals, and accounting platforms—which increases complexity.
Manual Data Entry: Current processes are prone to errors and inefficiencies.
Invoice Disputes: Exception handling is time-consuming and costly.
Legacy Systems: The industry has been slow to adopt automation, leaving AR teams struggling with outdated workflows.
Upwell is tackling these problems head-on with an AI-powered AR automation platform built specifically for logistics. Upwell automates the billing process, thereby streamlining operations and enhancing financial accuracy.
Upwell streamlines the entire order-to-cash (O2C) process for logistics companies by automating invoice auditing, payment processing, and collections. The platform seamlessly integrates with Transportation Management Systems (TMS) and existing financial tools, offering:
- Automated Pre-Invoice Auditing: Which reduces invoice disputes and improves accuracy.
- Predictive AR Dashboards: Which provide real-time insights to optimize cash flow.
- Automated Payment Reminders: Which ensure timely collections and minimizes past-due balances.
- Payment Processing & Reconciliation: That support ACH, credit cards, and other payment options. And:
- AI-Powered Efficiency: reducing operational expenses by 50-100% per AR team member.
By automating accounts receivable workflows, Upwell enables logistics businesses to improve cash flow, decrease Days Sales Outstanding (DSOs), and reduce overhead.
Automotive Ventures’ Mobility Fund II invested in Upwell’s $6.5 million Seed round, led by Vertical Venture Partners. Other notable investors include Plug and Play Ventures, Black Dog Ventures, Neverlift Ventures, and previous investors NVP, SaaS Ventures, Rise of the Rest, Invest Nebraska and Motivate Ventures.
The company has raised $10 million since 2023.
Our decision to invest was driven by several key factors:
- A Massive Market Opportunity: With a total addressable market (TAM) exceeding $10 billion, Upwell is positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for logistics automation.
- A Strong Business Model: Upwell operates on a B2B SaaS subscription model, generating predictable revenue while offering additional transaction-based services.
- A Proven Leadership Team: Upwell’s founding team, led by CEO and Co-Founder Charley Dehoney, and Co-Founder/CTO Aaron Freeman, brings extensive experience in logistics, AI, and financial automation.
We believe that Upwell is a perfect fit for the investment thesis of our new Mobility Fund II.
By leveraging artificial intelligence to automate financial workflows, Upwell is driving efficiency in a critical, yet overlooked, segment of logistics. This investment underscores our commitment to backing companies that modernize outdated processes through cutting-edge technology.
With its AI-driven approach to logistics finance, Upwell has the potential to revolutionize logistics billing through automation. We are excited to support their journey and look forward to the company’s continued success.
For more information on Upwell, visit www.upwell.com.
So, with that, let’s transition to Our Companies to Watch.
Every week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my weekly Intel Report, we showcase a company to watch, and take the opportunity here on this segment each week to share that company with you.
Today, our new company to watch is LoanBridge.ai.
LoanBridge optimizes vehicle asset management by providing comprehensive insights.
Loanbridge delivers unmatched coverage nationwide, seamlessly processing millions of vehicles with historical insights and near real-time updates. The company’s expansive reach ensures reliable, large-scale vehicle tracking for your enterprise needs.
LoanBridge provides easy upload and management of vehicle details: Their system provides nationwide VIN decoding and real-time data integration, simplifying vehicle management for dealerships, lenders, and banks. You can streamline operations with precise vehicle details, including make, model, year, drivetrain, and color.
The company helps with monitoring to reduce risk: Utilizing their comprehensive lien checks, event tracking, and fleet monitoring to safeguard your investments. Proactive risk mitigation features help you manage assets efficiently, ensuring compliance and reducing liabilities.
And the company provides alerts to reduce write-offs and costs: Receive instant alerts for tows, impounds, and unauthorized commercial usage. Their system helps reduce tow and storage fees, mitigates risks with advanced fraud detection, and ensures cost-effective asset recovery.
If you’d like to learn more about LoanBridge you can check them out at www.LoanBridge.ai.
So that’s it for this week’s Future of Automotive segment.
If you’re an AutoTech entrepreneur working on a solution that helps car dealerships, we want to hear from you. We are actively investing out of our DealerFund.
Don’t forget to check out my first book, “The Future of Automotive Retail,” and my brand-new book, “The Future of Mobility”, both of which are now available on Amazon.com.
Thanks (as always) for your ongoing support and for tuning into CBT News for this week’s Future of Automotive segment. We’ll see you next week!
