Traxens Raises 23M€ and Acquires NEXT4

–Traxens, a smart-container service provider for the global supply-chain industry, has announced it has received a financing round of €23 million (USD25+ million), including participation of its historical shareholders, and acquired NEXT4, a fast-growing French supplier of removable and reusable shipping-container trackers.

The two companies will combine efforts to market and develop their highly complementary tracking solutions and their software applications to offer the best of their functionalities to their customers, e.g. shipment scheduling, collaborative risk management and analysis reports. This alliance positions them to grow Traxens to be the No. 1 company in the international market of overseas cargo visibility, through sharing their technological expertise in tracking devices.

Since its launch in 2012, Traxens has become the reference in shipping container tracking. Through the strong collaboration established with the three main shipping lines, as shareholders, it introduced its smart container solution.

Its Internet-of-Things (IoT) solution is based on a breakthrough technology that enables access to the most comprehensive, precise and timely data for managing assets in transit anywhere in the world. In addition to tracking container geolocation, it detects shocks and monitors temperature and humidity, as well as the open-or-closed status of container doors.

Founded in Toulouse in 2018, NEXT4 provides trackers that can be affixed to containers from point of origin to the final destination. This provides freight forwarders with a premium tracking solution and gives customers 24/7, real-time data on the status and location of their goods via sensors inside the containers. Tens of thousands of NEXT4 trackers have been adopted by leading freight forwarders such as Bolloré Logistics and DB Schenker. Multiple airlines have approved the newest version of the trackers, a smaller and more versatile device, adapted to air freight.

The €23 million round of financing follows a Series C funding round of approximately €20M ($22.7M) raised in 2019. In addition to enabling Traxens to grow its smart container business worldwide, the new round will be used to build new partnerships with some of the ecosystem's major enterprises, such as container lessors, insurance companies and transport management systems. As it moves into new markets in the U.S., South America and Asia, Traxens also will use the funds to expand its portfolio of solutions to address the increasing needs of freight forwarders and beneficial cargo owners (BCO) for supply chain transparency.

The addition of NEXT4’s removable, reusable container-tracking systems is a strategic expansion of Traxens’ business model to target addressable markets and, during this challenging period for the supply-chain, ensures almost immediate availability of at least one of the two technology solutions for Traxens’ customers. Shippers or their partners can either use a pre-equipped container or a removable cargo tracker to position themselves on their containers, according to their needs.

“Integrating NEXT4 into our company dramatically increases our ability to serve the growing needs of our customers as they digitize their business processes, while adding freight transparency, cargo security and goods integrity,” said Traxens CEO David Marchand. “We will bring to the market a comprehensive portfolio of solutions that gives our customers the flexibility to choose between a permanent or removable tracker, which is a unique option in our target markets.”

“Joining the Traxens group enables us to market our innovative solution on an international scale and to jointly develop new products and solutions with their team,” said NEXT4 CEO and founder Cédric Rosemont. “Our highly complementary solutions will meet the current and future challenges of shippers and their logistics providers. This means NEXT4’s customers also can benefit from Traxens’ solutions, which are now being widely deployed by container owners.”

NEXT4 will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Traxens and will remain in Toulouse. In addition to remaining as CEO of NEXT4, Rosemont will serve as Traxens’ chief marketing officer.