Craig Fuller is CEO and founder of FreightWaves, a company that provides data and editorial content focused on economic and innovative technology drivers for the freight transportation ecosystem.
Early life and education
Craig Fuller is a Chattanooga resident who grew up observing his father build a successful business. Fuller’s father launched US Xpress in Chattanooga, now the largest privately held trucking company in the United States. As a small boy, Fuller learned about technologies such as digitization and telematics and worked as a help-desk technician in his pre-teens. Fuller is a graduate of Baylor University, with a BBA in International Business and Entrepreneurship in 2006.
Early career
After college, Craig Fuller ended up working at his father’s business, US Xpress Enterprises, in 1994. Fuller launched his career with US Xpress in the mid-’90s, around the time that US Xpress went from a privately held trucking company doing about $200 million in revenue to a public one doing an IPO on the NADAQ. Fuller worked in various areas, including IT, fleet operations, dispatch, repowers, call center, sales, pricing, recruiting, and network design.
In September 2002, Fuller served as the Vice-President of Sales/GM of the Xpress Direct division of US Xpress Enterprises, the division he established. Under Fuller’s leadership, Xpress Direct became one of the largest and fastest growing divisions of US Xpress Enterprises. The division provides on-demand expedited truckload services to customers requiring just-in-time transportation and surge capacity needs. Xpress Direct has become one of the biggest providers of ground expedite services in North America; and achieved million dollar contracts with Wal-Mart, UPS, Home Depot, Nestle, Toyota, Nissan, and FEMA.
In December 2004, Fuller became the President of Xpress Global Systems. Fuller ran a $150 million P&L, negotiated and secured a $50 million contract with Home Depot, and oversaw the corporate sales to the floor covering and airfreight industries. Fuller left US Xpress in August 2005.
In August 2005, Fuller founded and served as CEO of TransCard, the leading provider of prepaid services to community financial institutions. The company services over 300 banks in the US and the largest casino operators in the US. In 2012, TransCard was sold to US Bank for 30x revenues. In January 2014, Fuller sold his position in TransCard to a private investor.
As the CEO, Fuller grew the sales channel from one bank in 2008 to over 300 in 2014 and secured contracts with MGM and Caesars for the company’s hospitality loyalty product. Fuller called on corporate HR departments to secure private label payroll card programs and also secured key sales partnerships with the American Bankers Association, Deluxe Corporation, and Jack Henry and Associates. Fuller has negotiated million dollar contracts with financial institutions and corporate enterprises for private label card programs. The Finance Monthly Magazine has recognized Fuller as the CEO of the Year – 2013.
In January 2014, Fuller served as Advisor at US Xpress Enterprises Inc. Fuller worked with executive management in building out the agent program for the company. Fuller also founded a digital brokerage, a mobile-enabled technology that unites independent trucking fleets with shippers. Fuller stayed at US Xpress until February 2015. In September 2015, Fuller became Director at Madison Performance Group.
In August 2017, Fuller founded another venture, Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), and serves as Managing Director. Blockchain in Trucking Alliance is an advocacy and standards organization to help educate and advocate for the implementation of blockchain applications across the trucking landscape.
FreightWaves
In April 2016, Fuller founded FreightWaves, a SaaS provider of data for the freight markets. Fuller founded FreightWaves to provide transparency and risk-management products to the freight markets. FreightWaves began with its core product, the SONAR data analytics platform that crunches data from the freight market to provide insights on how the market is doing and design future trends. In 2017, the company expanded into a content platform of the same name, which quickly became the most popular freight and trucking-focused publication globally.
FreightWaves developed a SaaS market dashboard inspired by the Bloomberg terminal to give market participants near-time insights into the freight markets, using charts, heat and geo maps, and commentary by a panel of market experts. In November 2018 FreightWaves partnered with Barchart to create a new Freight Market Center on Barchart.com to provide Barchart users with the latest data, content, and news for global freight markets. FreightWaves will integrate Barchart’s cmdtyStats database for economic data and commodity statistics into its SONAR data platform.
On October 18, 2018, FreightWaves was selected the FIA Innovator of the Year at FIA Expo. The judges preferred FreightWaves as the winner based on its potential to build a new class of future products and market data based on the rates charged by trucking companies to transfer goods across the United States.
In June 2019, FreightWaves acquired StakUp for an undisclosed amount.
Funding rounds
In September 2016, FreightWaves raised $2 million in a seed round, led by Hunt Technology Ventures. In November 2017, FreightWaves raised $3.4 million in another seed round, led by Fontinalis Partners with the participation from Story Ventures, Engage Ventures, and 8VC, which values the company at approximately $9 million.
In June 2018, FreightWaves raised $13 million in a Series A round, led by 8VC with the participation from existing investors Story Ventures and Fontinalis Partners. New investors include Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and Pritzker Group Venture Capital also participated in this round.
In February 2019, FreightWaves raised $21 million in a Series B round, led by previous lead investor 8VC with the participation from other existing investors Story Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Fontinalis Partners, and Engage Ventures. Other participants in this round include Prologis, Mobility Ventures, Ascend Venture Capital, Hearst Ventures, Diversified Systems, and Kelvin Beachum Jr.
FreightWaves has raised a total of $39.4 million in its funding rounds. FreightWaves is funded by 15 investors. FreightWaves has $2 million in estimated revenue annually. FreightWaves competes with Freightos, Xeneta, and Convoy.