Sennder buys C.H. Robinson's European trucking business to double its revenue

Sennder is a Berlin-based digital freight forwarder that matches shippers with trucking carriers across Europe.

Buying a rival's European full-truckload operation, rather than growing organically, gives Sennder the network density to be a top-five player in the region.

Sennder had already grown by acquisition: it took over Uber's European freight business in 2020 in a rumored roughly €900M all-stock deal, and bought the Dutch firm Cars&Cargo in 2021.

On 30 July 2024 Sennder said it would buy the European surface transportation assets of C.H. Robinson, reportedly the second-biggest logistics provider globally after Amazon, for an undisclosed cash sum that a source told TechCrunch was similar in value to the Uber deal. The two businesses each have about €700M of revenue and the combined group would have 1,700 employees across 20 markets. In May, Sennder had hired C.H. Robinson's head of engineering, Kollen Glynn, as its CTO.

Sennder's earlier deals (Uber Freight Europe, Cars&Cargo) had already shown it could add volume by acquisition

A leaner market meant a large seller was willing to part with a European operation of similar size to Sennder's own

Doubling revenue to €1.4B would put it among Europe's top five full-truckload providers and densify its carrier network

Hiring C.H. Robinson's head of engineering as CTO in May gave Sennder an insider's view of the unit it would buy

When funding gets tighter, a funded startup can buy scale from a corporate seller that wants to focus, instead of waiting for a new round.

As of 30 July 2024 the deal was announced but not closed; completion was expected in Q4 2024 pending regulatory approval. Nothacker told TechCrunch that another fundraise was one of the strategic options Sennder was exploring, though not a classic venture round.