According to FreightWaves, Descartes Systems Group has acquired Santiago, Chile-based last-mile logistics technology provider Drivin for $30 million, with up to an additional $5 million in earnout consideration tied to revenue targets.
Strategic acquisition expands AI-powered last-mile capabilities
The acquisition, announced on Monday, July 06, 2026, marks Descartes’ latest move to strengthen its fleet performance management and real-time delivery execution offerings. Drivin’s platform leverages machine learning and agentic AI to optimize routing, dispatching, and end-to-end visibility—particularly in high-density urban environments across Latin America. According to the source, the company’s technology has been widely adopted in cities where service expectations are consistently rising.
James Wee, general manager of fleet performance management solutions at Descartes, emphasized Drivin’s operational maturity:
“Drivin brings a proven and highly adaptable solution for managing complex last mile operations. It also has a significant volume of last mile logistics data and operational metadata generated from real-world delivery execution across Latin America to improve AI training and execution, predictive analytics, and optimization.” — James Wee, general manager of fleet performance management solutions at Descartes
Integration into Descartes Global Logistics Network
The deal was funded entirely with cash on hand. Drivin’s leadership team—including executives with deep domain expertise in Latin American logistics—will join Descartes, accelerating innovation and customer success across the Descartes Global Logistics Network. Ed Ryan, CEO of Descartes, stated that Latin America represents a key growth market—not only for Descartes but for the broader logistics technology industry. The acquisition complements Descartes’ existing fleet performance management portfolio and extends its geographic footprint in the region.
This follows Descartes’ April 2026 acquisition of Pittsburgh-based Idelic for $28 million. Idelic’s safety platform integrates monitoring, reporting, and driver training, supported by a dataset comprising more than 400,000 accident reports and over 40 billion miles of driving data—further reinforcing Descartes’ data-driven approach to fleet intelligence.
Market reaction and strategic context
On the day of the announcement, shares of Descartes (NASDAQ: DSGX) declined 1.1% at 10:33 a.m. EDT, while the S&P 500 rose 0.6%. The transaction underscores a broader industry trend: supply chain software providers are prioritizing AI-enhanced last-mile capabilities amid tightening urban delivery windows and rising e-commerce volumes. Unlike legacy routing tools, Drivin’s agentic AI architecture enables dynamic decision-making during live execution—adjusting routes, reassigning drivers, and updating ETAs in response to traffic, weather, or no-shows.
For supply chain professionals, the integration signals growing reliance on localized, real-time data to train AI models—especially in emerging markets where infrastructure variability demands adaptive logic. Drivin’s dataset, built across multiple countries in Latin America, offers unique signal diversity compared to North American or European datasets, potentially improving model robustness for global deployments.
Source: FreightWaves
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
