GetSwift prepares to deliver
From The Australian – David Swan
Melbourne-based delivery logistics software outfit GetSwift has landed the “godfather of angel investment” Sig Mosley and former Defense Advanced Research Projects scientist John Wilson as senior advisers to its board, as it looks to push further into the US.
Mr Mosley, who has been the most prolific tech investor in the southeast of the US since 1990 having invested in 120 start-ups, said he was very impressed with the Australians and their business “made all the sense in the world”.
“We know logistics and we are very involved with logistics, there are very few companies that have this kind of growth pattern that go from inception to this point, this stage of scale,” he said, adding he and Mr Wilson were planning on investing, but the company had already gone public in Australia.
“It’s funny, we don’t usually have companies go public at this stage,” Mr Wilson said.
GetSwift’s platform uses algorithms to optimise the delivery service for enterprise firms, focusing on the last mile of deliveries, and is used in 51 countries. Mr Wilson said he hadn’t been able to find a natural barrier to the company’s growth.
“The fact they’re already in multiple language markets, and multiple time zones, and scaling smoothly; there’s just a frictionless component to their growth that suggests they may be on a very high trajectory, with all the ingredients there,” he said.
Mr Mosley is currently the record holder of the largest southeast venture capital deal with the $US5.7 billion acquisition of Tradex by Ariba. He is also a director of The Imlay Foundation, Techbridge, and Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Southeast.
Mr Wilson meanwhile helped develop flexible TV screens and electric vehicles, beginning his work with electric vehicles in a 1993 project with the US DARPA.
While in Washington, he also served as executive director of the Southern Governors Association and Washington office director of the Southern Legislative Conference.
GetSwift executive chairman Bane Hunter, a former Foxtel and Viacom executive, said he was thrilled and honoured to have the US executives on the team.
“Their advice, networks and experience will be an important contributor as GetSwift is poised to transform the SaaS logistics sector, not just in Australia, but globally,” he said.
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