Descartes acquires Idelic for $28M

Descartes Systems Group said April 23 it acquired Idelic, a Pittsburgh software company that helps trucking fleets spot risky drivers before crashes happen. (descartes.com) Descartes said it paid about $28 million upfront in cash and agreed to a performance-based earnout worth as much as $12 million. (sec.gov) Idelic’s platform combines training, monitoring, reporting and coaching in one system, and Descartes said it is built on more than 40 billion miles of telemetry and 400,000 accident records. (descartes.com) The company also said Idelic connects to more than 80 telematics, risk-management and regulatory systems, giving fleets a single stream of driver and safety data. (sec.gov) For Descartes, the point is not just another software module. The company said Idelic’s safety signals will be folded into its Global Logistics Network and paired with route planning and execution tools. (descartes.com) That ties the acquisition to a product Descartes rolled out last week. FreightWaves reported the company had just introduced Fleet Data Intelligence, an artificial intelligence and machine-learning platform aimed at improving fleet performance and lowering cost per delivery. (finance.yahoo.com) Idelic’s models were trained across more than 150 fleets, according to Descartes, and the buyer said those models are already used to predict driver risk and target safety coaching. (descartes.com) FreightWaves said the Idelic purchase is Descartes’ 36th acquisition since 2016, underscoring how the company has expanded by buying niche logistics software businesses. (finance.yahoo.com) The closing leaves Descartes with a bigger pool of driver-behavior data and a new safety product to sell into fleets already using its routing and final-mile software. (descartes.com)