April 20, 2018
New Office Space in Merchandise Mart to Accommodate Logistics Tech Company Growth Plans
Mayor Rahm Emanuel today joined project44, a global logistics technology company, to announce the company plans to add 200 jobs in Chicago. To accommodate this growth, project44 is moving to a new 40,000-square-foot space in Chicago’s iconic Merchandise Mart. The news follows the company’s recent announcement it has secured $35 million in new funding to continue its growth.
“Chicago’s diversified economy and global connectivity is ideal for companies driving real innovations in logistics and technology,” Mayor Emanuel said. “project44 has been an invaluable asset to Chicago’s innovation ecosystem and its continued growth is creating opportunities for local and international talent to join our thriving tech community.”
With the largest state-side engineering team of any logistics software as a service (SaaS) company, project44 is committed to cultivating Chicago’s global leadership in technology and innovation. The company estimates that about 73 percent of these positions will be enterprise SaaS product and engineering-based roles ranging from entry-level to the c-suite.
“We are reimagining how to enable a more productive and successful world by leveraging technology to create opportunities for individuals, companies, communities and countries to connect in a simpler and seamless network of commerce,” project44 CEO and founder Jett McCandless said. “Chicago’s unique ecosystem – brilliant enterprise SaaS talent, the heart of our domestic transportation network, and a range of Fortune 500 industries – is accelerating our ability to achieve those goals.”
Founded in 2014, project44 recently secured $35 million in new funding to power true supply chain visibility, and in turn deliver a faster and more reliable global shipping experience. OpenView (Datadog, Instructure, Workfront) has led the recent financing, with additional investment from local investors Chicago Ventures (SpotHero, G2 Crowd) and Pritzker Group (SMS Assist, Fleetmatics), as well as Silicon Valley-based Emergence Capital (Salesforce, Veeva Systems, Box, Zoom), 8VC (Wish, Oculus, Freightwaves), and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s firm Omidyar Technology Ventures (Convoy).
Joe Floyd, partner at Silicon Valley-based Emergence Capital and p44 board member, commented on the company’s commitment to their local roots: “We invest in people. project44’s team brings a unique blend of domain and SaaS experience that could only be found in Chicago. We’re honored to support this undeniable market leader as they leverage their passion, focus and speed to enable the world to move product more efficiently.”
For more information about project44, please visit: project44.com/careers.
About project44
project44 (p44) is a logistics technology company that brings dynamic shipment data and true supply chain visibility to a black box industry, empowering organizations to be nimble, proactive and reliable as they serve their customers. We enable the smartest and most efficient shipping experiences by providing full visibility into the entire shipment workflow including pricing, routing, pickup, tracking and payments. With API-based connectivity to the largest network of multimodal transportation providers and partners, our customers have more control at the time it matters most.