Mainsail Partners Leads Syndicate in Fresh $45 Million Capital Raise for 3PL Central

SAN FRANCISCO, April 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mainsail Partners announced today the recapitalization of its portfolio company 3PL Central including a new $45 million capital commitment for the cloud-based warehouse management system (WMS) provider. Mainsail was joined in the round by some of its limited partner investors, as well as new investors. The new capital is expected to help the company accelerate product innovation, enhance the customer experience and support strategic M&A.

"We believe this is an amazing opportunity to invest more capital behind a trusted team in an industry that has been experiencing positive secular tailwinds for some time," said Jason Payne, Co-founder and Senior Advisor at Mainsail Partners. "The increase in ecommerce volume and omnichannel fulfilment over the past year has accelerated the adoption of technology by third-party logistics (3PL) warehouses to meet customer demand from ecommerce merchants and improve satisfaction of end consumers. We believe 3PL Central is well-positioned to deliver even greater value to customers as part of this technology cycle."

According to the 2020 Warehouse Management System Market - Global Forecast to 2025 report, the WMS market grew from $1.5 Billion in 2017 to $2.5 Billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at an 18% compounded annual rate between 2020 and 2025. The segment of the market adopting cloud-based WMS software is expected to grow even faster as warehouses strive for increased efficiency and greater visibility into operations.

3PL Central delivers technology that helps 3PL warehouses build a modern, intelligent warehouse, striving to make increasingly complex operations easier to manage. The benefits to warehouse managers are numerous, including automatically capturing billable activities and calculating recurring charges; providing a hands-free and paperless experience; automating best practice workflows for high volume ecommerce packing and shipping operations; and allowing carriers to easily book appointments with warehouses through a self-service portal. 

"We have found Mainsail to be a valuable partner throughout our growth journey, providing operational support early in our partnership, and now providing strategic and additional financial support which will allow us to pursue M&A opportunities on top of our accelerating organic growth," said Andy Lloyd, CEO of 3PL Central. "Customer order volumes going through 3PL Warehouse Manager were up 46% year-over-year in 2020 and that growth has accelerated through Q1 of 2021 with a nearly 63% year over year increase."

Lloyd added, "Consumer behavior has changed and that has put even more pressure on the supply chain to respond with solutions that scale and optimize existing logistics networks. This fresh capital will allow us to continue our efforts to innovate, invest in product adjacencies, and enhance our customer experience to meet the growing needs of the 3PL warehouse community and their customers."

Mainsail first invested in 3PL Central in 2015. In 2016, 3PL Central bolstered its solution through the acquisition of iTraker. Mainsail also helped build out the management team, including the hiring of CEO Andy Lloyd, a former NetSuite executive. The company has grown its employees by 300% from the time that Mainsail originally invested in the company.

3PL Central has been recognized and included in numerous industry "Top" lists, including the Inc. 5000, Built-In's Best Places to Work in LA, Inbound Logistics Top 100 Logistics IT Providers, and Supply & Demand Chain Executive's SDCE 100 Top Supply Chain Projects for 2020.

About Mainsail

Mainsail Partners is a San Francisco-based growth equity firm that invests exclusively in fast-growing, bootstrapped software companies. The firm has raised over $1.2 billion and invested in more than 50 growing companies since 2003. Mainsail prioritizes investments in B2B software companies with compelling business models in growing markets. The firm's approach to driving value creation is anchored in a dedicated Operations Team that is purpose-built to help founders scale their businesses and accelerate growth. These women and men include former software company operators who leverage real-world experience, well-established best practices, and a true partnership ethos to support management teams. For more information, visit mainsailpartners.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn.

About 3PL Central

3PL Central is a leader in cloud-based warehouse management system (WMS) solutions built to meet the unique needs of the 3PL warehousing community. Serving as the backbone of our customer's operations, our platform aims to quickly transforms paper-based, error-prone businesses into service leaders who can focus on customer satisfaction, operate more efficiently, and grow faster. Offering a comprehensive warehouse management platform, we endeavor to make it easy for 3PLs to manage inventory, automate routine tasks, and deliver complete visibility to their customers. As an industry leader for over a decade, 3PL Central manages billions of dollars in inventory and processes more than 1 million orders a week from our customers' systems. To learn more, please visit https://3plcentral.com. 

Mainsail Partners Media Contact:

Chris Cassidy
[email protected]
415-755-7201

3PL Central Media Contact:

Rachel Trindade
310-356-7546 
[email protected]  

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SOURCE Mainsail Partners