Boston’s HaulHub, A Construction Tech Startup, Raises $30M From T. Rowe Price & Durable Capital

HaulHub, a Boston-area startup focused on modernizing the heavy construction industry’s approach to transportation management, has raised $30 million in Series B funding.

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T. Rowe Price Associates and Durable Capital Partners LP co-led the investment, which brings HaulHub’s total raised to $35 million since its 2015 inception. Lead Edge Capital led its $5 million seed round in November 2018.

Joe Spinelli told The Boston Globe last year that he started the company to meet his own needs as a construction company owner.

Specifically, Spinellli told the Globe that he didn’t found HaulHub for “the glitz and fame of starting a tech company.” Instead, as an executive at R. Bates & Sons Construction, he “needed it” for his business.

So, what does HaulHub do exactly? Well, the Globe described it as a sort of “Uber for dump trucks.”

But according to the company, it goes beyond that. In its own words, HaulHub says its cloud-based SaaS transportation solution increases “the capacity, efficiency and transparency of material deliveries for producers, contractors and carriers nationwide.” In other words, the company’s goal is to improve the way materials are delivered, capital assets are deployed, shifts are scheduled, inventory is managed and crews are hired. It does that by helping heavy construction companies “run lean” with technology.

“We power transportation, digital and electronic ticketing for producers, contractors, and carriers at thousands of jobsites and plants nationwide,” HaulHub said in a statement.

Spinelli told the Globe that he had started out by creating a database of all the haulers his construction company worked with, along with their mobile phone numbers. He was impressed with the immediate and intense interest.

HaulHub makes money by taking a cut from each trip it helps facilitate as well as by licensing software to help streamline interactions between material producers, haulers, and builders.

Investors weigh in

Henry Ellenbogen, CIO of Durable Capital Partners, believes the construction industry is at the tipping point of a digital transformation process. (We’ve covered various aspects of this sector extensively here, here and here.)

“We believe HaulHub has the right team, technology and market experience to create value for its customers, partners and team and build a much larger business,” Ellenbogen said in a written statement.

To T. Rowe Price’s Andrew Davis, HaulHub has tapped into a real and pervasive need in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets.

The company says the new capital will go toward the hiring of engineers and to expand the capabilities of its transportation management platform. It told the Boston Business Journal that it intends to double its team of 30 with the new capital.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias