One of the largest carriers in the trucking industry has partnered to create a new logistics and freight-focused lab that aims to launch startups that solve industry challenges.
J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. has established the Logistics Venture Lab (LVL) with UP.Labs, which uses a venture model to solve core problems across mobility industries for corporations who have the scale and resources but cannot do it on their own.
LVL’s goal is to launch as many as six startups over the next three years – the first of which is targeted to begin in 2025. These startups will focus on key industry service areas such as brokerage, dedicated, intermodal and truckload, among others.
John Kuolt, founder and CEO of UP.Labs, said the organization's process begins with an intensive scoping session to identify high-value problems worth solving with the core business of the corporate partner. Then the startups are built around solving those challenges.
“UP.Labs focuses on building software companies that interface with corporate partners who own or produce hardware and typically manage physical assets, such as factories, goods and/or vehicles,” Kuolt said. “We believe that ingesting data and producing insights for our corporate partners can help asset-heavy companies think and act more like a data science company. We are, however, technology agnostic. Our process is grounded in problems worth solving and can employ any technology to create value. We have leveraged big data and GenAI thus far and expect that to continue to be a theme in helping large corporations drive value.”
He said UP.Labs always invents, builds and launches startups in-house, and the work with J.B.Hunt is no exception. UP.Partners, the venture capital arm of the ecosystem, provides the seed funding. Once these companies mature, three years post-launch, the corporate partners have the option to acquire them.
J.B. Hunt CEO Shelley Simpson said, the company has always been focused on innovation, from the inception of modern intermodal transit to digital freight matching platforms to emerging safety technology and beyond. She said the company’s goal with this collaboration is to expand on its previous innovations with new ways to disrupt, adapt and accelerate across the transportation industry.
“As an industry leader, we are constantly looking to explore innovative ideas that drive progress,” Shelley said. “By working alongside some of the leading innovators in the mobility space through UP.Labs, we can uncover new ways to operate more efficiently, eliminate supply chain waste and deliver greater value to our people, customers, and shareholders. What we’ll be able to achieve through the Logistics Venture Lab is bigger than just J.B. Hunt. It will drive the industry forward.”
J.B. Hunt is UP.Labs’ fourth corporate partnership. The organization has previously partnered with Porsche in the automotive sector, Alaska Airlines in the airline industry and an undisclosed retail corporate partner.
UP.Labs, which connects corporations with entrepreneurs, utilizes a bespoke financial instrument (CIVA) to unlock innovation for corporations that have the scale and resources to transform the mobility industry.
“As a company focused on transforming the future of transportation, our goal is to collaborate with the biggest companies in each sector … Society as a whole has experienced massive disruptions in global distribution due to access to materials and macro events that reach every corner of the world. Transportation and logistics is one of the most fragmented industries for its size and is deeply impacted by supply chain disruption and economic cycles,” Kuolt said. “With our team of entrepreneurs and technologists, we are excited to tackle these challenges with a corporate partner who wishes to impact the broader industry.”
