Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Forklift battery firm UgoWork raises $51 million

Canadian company provides lithium ion batteries for material handling equipment.

ugo Screenshot 2024-07-31 at 10.19.53 AM.jpg

The Canadian tech firm UgoWork has raised $51 million in backing for its advanced energy storage solutions using lithium ion batteries for material handling equipment, and said the money will accelerate the company’s growth, expand its global reach, and enhance its integrated hardware and software solutions.

More specifically, the new funding will be used to grow the company’s go-to-market efforts, extend its global distribution footprint, accelerate the development of its software and hardware platforms, and expand its headquarters and main production facility.


The “series C” investment round was led by Fonds de solidarité FTQ, with significant participation from returning investors Investissement Québec (IQ), Export Development Canada (EDC), and includes a new credit facility from Desjardins Technology & Innovation Banking. This financing brings Quebec-based UgoWork’s total funding to $77 million.

According to the firm, its technology empowers logistics operators to electrify and modernize their fleets with an integrated hardware and cloud software ecosystem. UgoWork's clients achieve cost savings by reducing the equipment needed to run their operations, offering an advantage in the current environment of high-costs and labor shortages. And its AI-driven cloud platform unlocks “peak shaving” features to lower energy costs during high demand periods, and enhances safety through the use of digital twin technology, the firm said.

“We are committed to helping our customers make their energy transition by offering the fastest innovation roadmap of our industry. In a $200B material handling market where most equipment is powered by old technologies, we stand at the brink of a new era,” Philippe Beauchamp, president and CEO of UgoWork, said in a release. “We believe that data is poised to become a pivotal asset in this business, providing transformative opportunities to redefine our industry. Our ability to seamlessly integrate this data sets our solutions apart and greatly enhances the customer experience.”

 

 

Recent

More Stories

A photo of brown paper packages tied up with shiny red ribbons.

SMEs hopeful ahead of holiday peak

Businesses are cautiously optimistic as peak holiday shipping season draws near, with many anticipating year-over-year sales increases as they continue to battle challenging supply chain conditions.

That’s according to the DHL 2024 Peak Season Shipping Survey, released today by express shipping service provider DHL Express U.S. The company surveyed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to gauge their holiday business outlook compared to last year and found that a mix of optimism and “strategic caution” prevail ahead of this year’s peak.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

screen shot of AI chat box

Accenture and Microsoft launch business AI unit

In a move to meet rising demand for AI transformation, Accenture and Microsoft are launching a copilot business transformation practice to help organizations reinvent their business functions with both generative and agentic AI and with Copilot technologies.


The practice consists of 5,000 professionals from Accenture and from Avanade—the consulting firm’s joint venture with Microsoft. They will be supported by Microsoft product specialists who will work closely with the Accenture Center for Advanced AI. Together, that group will collaborate on AI and Copilot agent templates, extensions, plugins, and connectors to help organizations leverage their data and gen AI to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and drive growth, they said on Thursday.

Keep ReadingShow less
holiday shopping mall

Consumer sales kept ticking in October, NRF says

Retail sales grew solidly over the past two months, demonstrating households’ capacity to spend and the strength of the economy, according to a National Retail Federation (NRF) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Census data showed that overall retail sales in October were up 0.4% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 2.8% unadjusted year over year. That compared with increases of 0.8% month over month and 2% year over year in September.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of sectors leasing warehouse space

3PLs claim growing share of large industrial leases, CBRE says

Third-party logistics (3PL) providers’ share of large real estate leases across the U.S. rose significantly through the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same time last year, as more retailers and wholesalers have been outsourcing their warehouse and distribution operations to 3PLs, according to a report from real estate firm CBRE.

Specifically, 3PLs’ share of bulk industrial leasing activity—covering leases of 100,000 square feet or more—rose to 34.1% through Q3 of this year from 30.6% through Q3 last year. By raw numbers, 3PLs have accounted for 498 bulk leases so far this year, up by 9% from the 457 at this time last year.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of global supply chain capacity

Suppliers report spare capacity for fourth straight month

Factory demand weakened across global economies in October, resulting in one of the highest levels of spare capacity at suppliers in over a year, according to a report from the New Jersey-based procurement and supply chain solutions provider GEP.

That result came from the company’s “GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index,” an indicator tracking demand conditions, shortages, transportation costs, inventories, and backlogs based on a monthly survey of 27,000 businesses. The October index number was -0.39, which was up only slightly from its level of -0.43 in September.

Keep ReadingShow less