3PL Radiant Logistics boosts international growth with $35 million acquisition

Third-party logistics provider (3PL) Radiant Logistics Inc. is back in the acquisition game, buying the logistics tech firm Navegate Inc. for $35 million in a bid to generate cross-selling opportunities and reach a broader customer base, the firm said today.

Following the deal, Navegate will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Bellevue, Wash.-based Radiant and continue under the leadership of Joe Pelletier and Chad Bickett.

The purchase marks Radiant’s latest takeover since a string of deals that brought aboard Sandifer Valley Transportation and Logistics Ltd. (SVT) and Lomas Logistics in 2017 and Copper Logistics Inc. in 2015.

Mendota Heights, Minnesota-based Navegate provides a global trade management (GTM) software platform that supports customs brokerage, international ocean and air freight forwarding, domestic truck brokerage, drayage, and transload services. The company generated $5.9 million in earnings on some $88 million in revenues for the twelve months ended September 30.

“In addition to solidifying our presence in Shanghai, Navegate also strengthens our international services offering, particularly in the areas of customs brokerage, ocean forwarding, and drayage services, and brings with it a robust global trade management capability,” Bohn Crain, Radiant’s CEO and founder, said in a release. “These new global trade management capabilities will be made available to the entire Radiant network to provide our customers with purchase order and vendor management tools that unlock SKU-level visibility from the manufacturing floor in Asia through final delivery here in the U.S.”