Terminal Industries Leaves Stealth Mode with $17M for AI Yard Operations

Particular attention has been given to the advancement of warehouse management systems (WMS) in the FreightTech landscape, revolutionizing operations within physical buildings for greater transparency and optimization.

However, yard management systems (YMS) have received less investment and their innovations have been relatively dormant compared to WMS. YMS has traditionally relied on manual processes with limited technology support.

To address this challenge, Austin, Texas-based Terminal Industries on Thursday stepped out of stealth mode, along with deep partners, to strategically optimize shipyard operations globally using its unique artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

The company announced it has closed a $17 million seed funding led by supply chain investor 8VC and global warehouse provider Prologis, with participation from strategic investors including Ryder Ventures, NFI Ventures, Lineage Logistics, Vehicle Velocity Group and Friedkin Group.

Bringing AI to a backyard near you

According to Terminal Industries, 92% of shipyards lack technology solutions to eliminate wasted capacity, reduce unexpected costs and improve inventory operations, leading to $146 billion in excess transportation costs.

For this reason, CEO Max Constant and chief technology officer Neil Robertson, a former professor at Queens University Belfast, have teamed up with 8VC and Prologis to use the duo’s AI expertise to digitize the construction site.

Constant explained in an interview with FreightWaves that the company leverages a specific type of AI computer vision to gain traditionally hard-to-get data on site operations.

Constant explained why there was no better AI than computer vision to solve problems detected by cameras.

There’s a lot of camera data aggregating on these construction sites that nobody knows how to use, he said. We may passively index and analyze all of this information and then you can go back and use that information for a variety of reasons.

These use cases could include site process improvement, downtime, reduction of downtime and demurrage expenses, capacity visibility, and on-time performance metrics, just to name a few.

While addressing these issues could substantially reduce industry costs, Constant also noted that recent regulatory requirements and proposals could elevate this technology to a critical necessity for warehouse operators.

He pointed to regulations like the Warehouse Indirect Source Rule, which aims to reduce nitrogen oxides and diesel particulate emissions linked to warehouse operations in Southern California, or climate disclosure rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

People, ideas and partnerships

While elucidating the potential impact of Terminal Industries’ solutions on the logistics industry, Constant finds particular excitement driving the adoption of his solution alongside industry partners who possess a genuine appreciation for the issues they address.

In an interview with FreightWaves, Jake Medwell, co-founder and partner at 8VC, explained the alignment between Constant’s sentiment and Terminal Industries’ potentially profound influence on the global economy, seeing it as a catalyst for investment.

[8VC] it builds companies around people, ideas and partnerships, he said. Terminal was founded on all three of these pillars. We know Prologis, Ryder and NFI incredibly well. Each of them cares about technology and long-term commitments to efficiency. They are also all vertically integrated. We couldn’t ask for better co-development partners for Terminal.

Financing details:	Terminal industries
Financing amount	17 million dollars
Funding rounds	Round seed
Leading Investors	8VC and Prologis
Secondary investors	Ryder Ventures, NFI Ventures, Lineage Logistics, Vehicle Velocity Group and Friedkin Group
Business goals for the round	Continue to develop its AI technology and product offering
Total funding	17 million dollars

Terminal management is essential to improve efficiency in warehouses, but until Terminal there was no platform to fully digitize terminal operations, Will O’Donnell, chief executive officer of Prologis Ventures, said in the release. We know customers are looking for technology that provides them with real-time data insights into the intersection of transportation and warehouse operations. The Terminal AI solution represents a significant leap forward.

Outside of founding members and seed round investors, the team packs a punch with its advisory team, including Chris Sultemeier, former executive vice president of Walmart; Alan Gershenhorn, former executive vice president and chief commercial officer of UPS; Shaleen Devgun, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Schneider; and FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller.

Matt Yearling, former CEO of Shipyard Management and PINC visibility provider, will also join the team as president of Terminal Industries.

We are the AI ​​experts and they are the transportation experts, and I think the convergence of these two disciples can be very powerful, Constant said. It is our job now as innovators, with these partners, to build a roadmap to help adopt and integrate these technologies into the industry. We’re talking about restructuring 100-year-old processes, and it’s exciting to sit at this inflection point.

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