Convoy closes, unable to search out purchaser

Convoy, a Seattle-based digital brokerage, will shutter its operations after cost-cutting and failing to safe a purchaser, CEO and co-founder Dan Lewis mentioned Thursday in a letter to staff.

The startup spent “over 4 months exhausting all viable strategic choices for the enterprise,” together with M&A, however no choices materialized to avoid wasting the corporate, Lewis mentioned within the letter, which was despatched to Trucking Dive by a Convoy spokesperson.

A freight recession and contraction within the capital markets thwarted discussions with a “logical strategic acquirer,” Lewis advised staff.

“M&A exercise has shrunk considerably and most of logical strategic acquirers of Convoy are additionally affected by the freight market collapse, making the deal doing that a lot more durable,” Lewis wrote. 

Most Convoy staff have been laid off Thursday, based on the letter. By the afternoon, a number of “Convoyagers” had posted in regards to the closure on LinkedIn, noting they have been now on the lookout for work. 

Trucking Dive was unable to confirm what number of staff have been let go on account of the closure. 

Nonetheless, a small staff will stay with the corporate to wind down operations and discover potential strategic choices, a spokesperson advised Trucking Dive in an e-mail.

Lewis praised staff for his or her efforts to develop a “tech centric method to trucking” and enduring sweeping value cuts.

“We moved all enterprise levers doable, however we have been operating up the down escalator and it saved dashing up,” he mentioned.