Digital yard management technology provider Pinc Solutions is loading up with new capital to launch a series of strategic acquisitions and organic growth that could see the company boost its profile in the supply chain management software sector, thanks to an investment by the private equity firm Accel-KKR.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Union City, California-based Pinc today said the “significant" equity backing represented “the most significant investment in the history of the company,” according to Rafael Granato, Pinc’s vice president of marketing.
Pinc currently provides real-time visibility and workflow orchestration to yard operations across distribution centers and manufacturing plants worldwide. With its new backing, however, the company could take on more tasks. “The supply chain management software market is ripe for consolidation,” Granato said in an email. “Our main goal is to serve our customers better and bring to market solutions that can help the supply chain automate processes and increase visibility. We are currently studying different opportunities.”
That growth would be driven by Accel-KKR, a high-profile firm known for its record of building formidable technology players through its portfolio companies. The company is a partnership between the venture capital firm Accel Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the firm featured in “Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco,” the 1989 book about the leveraged buyout culture of 1980s Wall Street.
In more recent years, the company has invested in logistics firms. Accel-KKR in 2014 bought the supply chain technology vendor HighJump Software Inc., combined it with another firm in its stable, Accellos Software, and sold the combined company to German technology provider Körber AG in 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
Its investment in Pinc comes at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted typical trade patterns and highlighted the importance of companies being able to manage the massive surge in volume and velocity, Accel-KKR Managing Director Park Durrett said in the release.
“As global trade and consumer demands drive more complexity, effective yard management has quickly become pivotal in robust supply chain management practices,” Pinc CEO Matt Yearling said in a release. “The linkage between transportation and warehousing needs to be more seamless when complexity increases, and strong digital yard management can be a major operational cost driver in improving inventory management, labor costs, asset utilization, sustainability and facility costs. Together with Accel-KKR and its deep domain expertise in supply chain management technology, PINC is well-positioned to become a category leader in a fast-growing field, and ultimately serve the market and our customer base with more innovations and strategic acquisitions.”
