San Francisco Startup Samsara Raises $40M in Fleet Sensoring Tech

author: Claire   

Fleet management and delivery services have become a new target of the high-tech industry. How to efficiently monitor a fleet of trucks that deliver quality products to customers on time is what many startups focus on. San Francisco based startup Samsara recently has collected a new funding of $40 million, to continue its endeavor in sensor technology for fleet management.

According to TechCrunch, the round was led by General Catalyst, with Samsara's early investor Andreessen Horowitz participating. After the new round of fundraising, the company has collected a total of $80 million and now valued at $530 million.

"We are definitely excited about the way the logistics market is moving overall." Sanjit Biswas, founder of Samsara told TechCrunch. "Companies like Flexport are responding to customers' desire to gain better insight into where their inventory is at all times, at a massive scale. Our plans are to provide the underlying connected sensor hardware and software that would enable companies like Flexport to offer features like real-time tracking of cargo, historical sensor readings of environmental conditions and even video of the journey to their customers in the future."

Samsara develops sensor products to make truck fleets operating smoothly, including GPS trackers and sensors that monitor temperature. When traditional sensor systems require complex infrastructure, the company is trying to disrupt the industry with an integrated, software-centered solution. By providing plug-and-play sensors, wireless connectivity and cloud-hosted software, Samsara hopes its sensor products can be convenient and user-friendly to customers, who can analyze the data to ensure the delivery is running all well.

The startup was founded in 2015 by Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket, who previously founded a cloud infrastructure company called Meraki and then sold it to Cisco for $1.2 billion in 2012. The two tech leaders pushed Meraki to become one of Cisco's fastest growing businesses, and then founded Samsara with the hope to scale the company in a faster and more efficient way.

"Over the past year we did just that, installing our beta units in factories, warehouses, tractor trailers, and pump stations, and in the process, we learned a few things about where we can make a difference." Sanjit wrote in his personal blog.

The company plans to develop a more comprehensive suite of products that wraps into a single layer of software. The company also hopes to expand its product applications to not only the shipping industry, but also other IoT-related fields, such as autonomous vehicles and manufacturing.

Claire

Claire Peng has over 6 years of professional experience in the media industry, covering TV, newspaper and online media. She was once a reporter and producer for Fairchild Television based in Toronto Canada, and worked as an English news reporter for the Global Times in Beijing. She writes mainly about self-driving, companies investment, and the enterprise lab.