NXT Capital’s Venture Finance Group announced the closing of a $3 million venture loan to Open Mile, Inc. The facility will enable Open Mile to finance key growth initiatives.

Open Mile is the first automated online logistics provider in the $60 billion transportation brokerage industry that helps both shippers and trucking companies efficiently match supply and demand. Open Mile’s self-service transportation brokerage engine replaces the traditionally manual phone and fax-based task of matching freight loads to available trucks with an intelligent, transparent, easy-to-use platform that uses the latest web and mobile technologies. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Open Mile is backed by Charles River Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners.

“Open Mile has created a revolutionary platform that provides much needed automation to the time-, labor- and paper-intensive freight brokerage
industry,” said Jan Haas, senior managing director and group head of NXT Capital Venture Finance. “We see a tremendous opportunity for Open Mile’s enterprise-class platform to provide unmatched operational efficiencies to a growing network of carriers and shippers.”

“We are very pleased to have NXT Capital Venture Finance as our financing partner,” said Evan Schumacher, Open Mile’s CEO. “NXT’s team took the time to understand our business and the unique opportunity we have to disrupt the freight brokerage industry. In doing so, NXT designed a flexible facility that enables us to truly accelerate growth.”

NXT Capital Venture Finance is a newly formed business committed to serving entrepreneurs by providing less dilutive, more flexible forms of capital. With offices in Boston and Silicon Valley, NXT Capital Venture Finance provides senior and subordinated term loans in the $1 million to $20 million range to emerging growth companies backed by venture capital and private equity firms, particularly those in the technology and life science sectors.