Each day, a vast number of trucks transport goods across the highways of the United States, driving economic growth as consumer products, electronic devices, automobiles, and agricultural items are delivered to distribution facilities, retail locations, and ultimately, homes. A significant opportunity for improvement exists within this system – many of these trucks operate with considerable unused space – and Flock Freight, a San Diego-based company founded five years ago, believes it has found a way to revolutionize the industry.

The company has now secured the financial resources to pursue this goal.

Flock Freight announced on Tuesday that it has successfully raised $113.5 million in a Series C funding round, spearheaded by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The investment round also included participation from existing investors such as SignalFire, GLP Capital Partners, and Google Ventures, as well as a new minority investment from strategic partner Volvo Group Venture Capital. Ervin Tu, a managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, will be joining Flock Freight’s board of directors. With a total of $184 million in funding raised to date, the company has achieved a post-funding valuation of $500 million, as confirmed by a source with knowledge of the transaction, corroborating an earlier report from Bloomberg.

Over the past few years, numerous startups have emerged, all aiming to leverage technology to modernize the trucking industry – a critical component of the U.S. economy responsible for moving over 70% of all domestic freight – and enhance its overall efficiency. The majority of these companies have concentrated on developing digital platforms that connect trucking companies with shippers.

Flock Freight, however, has taken a different approach, focusing on the freight itself. The company has developed a software platform designed to consolidate shipments into a single, shared truckload, thereby optimizing freight transportation. Flock Freight explains that its software circumvents the conventional hub-and-spoke model, which often results in trucks traveling with less than a full load, a situation commonly referred to as LTL in the industry. By combining shipments heading in the same direction onto a single truck, Flock Freight asserts that freight-related carbon emissions can be reduced by as much as 40%.

These funds will be allocated towards expanding the company’s workforce, which currently consists of 129 employees.

“While many companies in the digital freight-matching space utilize technology to simply enhance workflow automation and improve efficiency, Flock Freight employs technology to enable a completely new shipping method – shared truckload – which fundamentally increases the efficiency of freight transportation. The algorithms developed by Flock Freight allow shippers to move freight up to 44 linear feet without the limitations typically associated with LTL shipments, classifying it instead as ‘shared truckload,’ ” stated Oren Zaslansky, founder and CEO of Flock Freight, in a press release. “Shippers can leverage Flock Freight’s efficient shared truckload solution to effectively manage periods of high demand and urgent delivery requirements.”

This proposition has proven attractive to a wide range of venture capital firms and corporate investors, including Volvo and SoftBank.

“Flock Freight is streamlining supply chain efficiency for a substantial number of shippers. Our investment is intended to support the company’s efforts to expand its operations and increase its market share,” explained Tu, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.