Descartes acquires Velocity Mail
20 / 07 / 2018
Descartes Systems Group has acquired certain assets of Velocity Mail, a network that provides global air carriers with mail and parcel shipment scanning and tracking.
Velocity Mail has been connecting commercial airlines and their logistics partners with government postal authorities around the world for more than 15 years.
Velocity Mail is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Descartes acquired Velocity Mail for $25.5m in cash, satisfied from Descartes’ existing acquisition line of credit.
Ken Wood, EVP of product management at Descartes, said: “With more than 60% of cross-border e-commerce transactions shipped using postal providers, the growth of e-commerce has fuelled an increase in the market for Velocity Mail’s solutions.
“Global air carriers need to have access to timely and reliable information about the movement of mail and parcel shipments to operate efficiently and meet postal authority service level agreements.
"Velocity Mail’s network operates with similar fundamentals to the Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN). It helps parties connect and share information, while value-added business applications that are part of the network leverage that information to increase efficiencies and improve decision-making.”
Edward Ryan, Descartes’ chief executive, said: “Global air carriers and their partners are key constituents on our Global Logistics Network .
“By combining Velocity Mail’s solutions with the Descartes Global Air Messaging Gateway, the air carriers will now have one platform to manage the life cycle of all shipments, both e-commerce focused mail and parcel shipments and larger freight shipments. The combination also strengthens our position in the growing global e-commerce market.”
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