FourKites announces the acquisition of NIC, the European provider of supply chain visibility. The combined networks of FourKites and NIC-place freight forwarders for road, rail, and sea transport form the largest multimodal freight forwarding network in Europe. This gives shippers worldwide the most comprehensive end-to-end platform for global supply chain visibility. The acquisition will also drive the adoption of secure, real-time visibility solutions specifically for carriers. It also shortens the time to value for shippers with complex, multimodal freight forwarding networks.
NIC-place is the market leader for software solutions in the area of supply chain transparency, which have been specially developed for transport companies, freight forwarders, and logistics service providers. With the proprietary Data Control Center (DCC), NIC-place offers freight forwarders a flexible and secure way to share supply chain data with customers. At the same time, transport companies retain complete control over their business, network and data. NIC-place was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Germany. Thousands of companies like Kuehne+Nagel, H. Essers, Unterer, Quehenberger, and Frigotrans trust NIC-place to track and monitor millions of shipments every year.
“We are very excited to partner with FourKites, the innovative leader in real-time supply chain visibility and end-to-end multimodal transportation coverage,” said Pete Jendras, Founder and CEO of NIC-place. “FourKites follows our vision to prioritize data security and integrity and enable transport companies to easily collaborate with their supply chain partners. We look forward to expanding the mutual benefit of NIC-place\’s leading freight forwarding solutions with the largest real-time global visibility network in the world.”
As a FourKites company, NIC-place will continue to focus on trucking specific solutions. You will leverage FourKites\’ leading trucking network, global reach, and R&D organization to accelerate the pace of innovation. The companies will keep the NIC-place name and continue to operate the NIC-place offices in Germany in order to expand the team and operations from there.
“NIC-place has the only carrier-focused visibility solution on the market, the most advanced rail shipment tracking capabilities in Europe, and unrivaled expertise invaluable and temperature-controlled shipments,” says FourKites founder and CEO Mathew Elenjickal. \”With this acquisition, we are creating a center of excellence for carriers and shippers that will significantly accelerate end-to-end visibility and the delivery of new solutions tailored to our customer\’s unique needs.\”
The acquisition helps drive much-needed supply chain visibility across Europe. According to a recent research report by Reuters and FourKites on the state of European supply chains, 78% of European companies said that the end-to-end traceability of cargo is their biggest problem in the supply chain.