Portfolio — Climate

Freightward

A quarter of truck miles are driven empty. Fewer now.

Seed 2022 · $3.9M Climate Chicago, United States

Freightward matches outbound loads with return-trip capacity so trucks run full both ways. Across the first hundred carriers on the platform, its routing engine cut empty-mile rates by 19% — cost and carbon that were simply being burned before.

An empty return leg is the rare thing that's both pure waste and pure margin sitting on the table. Marcus spent years staring at it from the dispatcher's chair. When the person who lived the problem builds the fix, we pay attention.

Freightward

  • Seed · 2022Stage
  • $3.9MRound
  • ClimateSector
  • Chicago, United StatesHeadquarters
  • 21Team
The founder

Marcus Bell

Co-founder & CEO

Marcus was a dispatcher who spent his days watching trucks roll out full and come back empty, knowing there was freight going the other way if anyone could just see it. Freightward is that missing view, built.

How it's gone
  • 2022

    We came in

    Seed round, first hundred carriers on, matching engine live.

  • 2023

    The proof

    19% off the empty-mile rate across the starting fleet.

  • 2024

    Denser

    Adding carriers and shippers to tighten the matches on every lane.

An illustrative 99SA Ventures profile — founder, team and figures stand in until the company shares its own.

Building something that has to work without a subsidy?

We look for climate and industrial businesses whose economics stand on their own. Show us yours.