DAT Acquires Payments Firm Outgo to Speed Carrier Pay

DAT Freight & Analytics acquired factoring and fintech provider Outgo, according to FreightWaves, which reported the deal on a Thursday without disclosing terms. The acquisition brings payment and factoring technology into the DAT One platform, which carriers and brokers use for load matching.

For background on DAT's data footprint, it is worth noting that GoodShip announced on Aug. 22, 2024, via Business Wire, that it was integrating DAT iQ spot and contract rate data into its freight orchestration and procurement platform. That integration is now more than two years old and is unrelated in timing to the Outgo acquisition; it is included here as context on DAT's existing reach into shipper and broker software, not as new news.

What the Outgo acquisition involves

FreightWaves reported that Outgo, founded in 2022 by former Uber and Convoy employees, offers a factoring model it calls fractional factoring, which lets carriers factor invoices selectively rather than committing to long-term factoring contracts. FreightWaves reported that, according to a DAT news release, carriers using the integrated Outgo technology within DAT One can be paid within hours, and in some cases within 15 minutes, compared with payment delays that FreightWaves said have historically stretched for weeks in the industry.

FreightWaves also reported that DAT plans to mark brokers who meet Outgo's qualification standards with a blue-check-style indicator, signaling that their loads qualify for faster payment processing. FreightWaves noted that Triumph Financial has made its own acquisitions in freight fintech, including Isometric Technologies and Greenscreens.ai, and that market speculation exists about Triumph potentially entering load matching.

Background: how DAT iQ rates appeared in GoodShip

According to Business Wire's Aug. 22, 2024, release, GoodShip's platform surfaces DAT iQ spot and contract rate data, letting customers benchmark rates, review carrier bids, and receive savings recommendations. Business Wire reported that DAT iQ's pricing models were trained on $150 billion in annual market transactions submitted by more than 1,300 shippers and brokers, with models updated with new data daily. Business Wire said customers activate the integration by entering DAT credentials within GoodShip, after which they can configure the refresh frequency and other parameters of the data feed. The release stated the integration was available to GoodShip customers who hold a DAT iQ subscription.

Context on DAT's scale

According to Food Logistics, DAT operates what it describes as the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America, citing a database representing $110 billion in annual market transactions and 249 million freight matches. Food Logistics also reported that DAT's freight rate database provides settlement prices used for trucking freight futures contracts, and that DAT is a business unit of Roper Technologies. Business Wire's 2024 release separately cited a larger figure of $150 billion in annual market transactions and more than 400 million annual freight matches for DAT, reflecting different reporting periods or methodologies between the two sources.

MarketScale analysis

MarketScale analysis: The Outgo acquisition and the GoodShip rate integration are separate developments announced roughly two years apart and should not be read as a single coordinated rollout. Teams evaluating freight software may still find it useful to know both exist: one ties payment speed to broker eligibility standards, the other embeds DAT rate benchmarks into a procurement platform. Procurement and transportation teams considering either should confirm current terms directly with DAT, GoodShip, or Outgo, since the GoodShip announcement is no longer new.