Wabash launching tech-focused startups to support customers
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Lafayette-based trailer manufacturer Wabash is looking to expand into the tech space by launching two startups focused on enhancing order customization among customers and aftermarket parts optimization.
The company is partnering with California-based Up.Labs to develop what will be known as Wabash Venture Lab, from which the new startups will be established.
“We’ve determined that in order to create a world-class experience for our customers, we need to support products after sales [and] support our customers through the the buying journey,” said Mike Pettit, chief growth officer at Wabash. “Inside of Wabash, we talk about how we seamlessly serve our customer, and to do that, we’ve got to merge a physical and digital connection.”
Wabash says the new AI-driven startups, which have not yet been named, are being designed to simplify operations, elevate customer service, and enable smarter and faster decisions across the company’s network of partners and customers.
The first new venture, Wabash said, will be an AI-powered tool that will streamline how customers and dealers can specify made-to-order trailers and truck bodies.
“A lot of people think our products are all the same. Every trailer is built to a customer specification, so you got a lot of complexity,” Pettit said. “Ultimately, it’s going to be a tool that makes the buying experience for our customers feel more like the buying experience you get in your home. You can get what you want when you want it, and spec it the way you want it, and be able to have some surety that that product is the same as what you’d see when you ordered it.”
The second startup will create an intelligent software platform designed to use predictive analytics to orchestrate the production, distribution and pricing of aftermarket parts in real time, Wabash said.
The company said the goal of the venture is to accelerate parts revenue and efficiency.
“Rather than try to build the right solutions entirely in-house, we’re working with proven venture builders to co-create tools tailored to the needs of our business,” Pettit said. “From quoting trailers and truck bodies faster to ensuring the right parts are available when and where they’re needed, we’re unlocking smarter, more agile ways to enhance the customer experience and drive innovation.”
Up.Labs is a venture lab that leverages vertical AI and advanced analytics to build B2B software startups for transportation and mobility firms.
Pettit said the company’s model was particularly attractive to Wabash. He said Up.Labs spends a lot of time working with a business to fully understand the real-world problem they’re trying to solve and find a tech-based solution.
“They understand our space, our world, pretty well,” he said. “So it was nice that they had that focus in the world that we’re in, and they’ve done some projects with other partners that are very similar to Wabash. So they had head start based on [the fact] that they know our markets.”
Up.Labs CEO John Kuolt said Wabash has a clear vision on how to modernize industrial manufacturing.
“Together, we’re building ventures powered by advanced AI and deep industry expertise—solutions designed to solve real challenges for Wabash’s dealers and partners,” Kuolt said in written remarks. “We’re especially excited to bring our venture lab model into B2B manufacturing, where the products that drive global supply chains are built and where innovation at the system level can unlock enormous enterprise value.”
The two new ventures are currently in development, and Pettit said the company expects to deliver initial minimum viable products, or MVPs, by the fourth quarter of this year.
Wabash did not disclose its financial investment in the new startups, and Pettit said it’s too early to say how many jobs would be created. However, he noted that the products developed through the ventures could be used by other companies as well.
“There’s dozens of businesses in Indiana that will benefit from this type of solution–lots of companies in the RV space and the transportation space that have the same sorts of build-to-order, configure-type challenges that Wabash has,” he said. “We think this will be real exciting for the broader ecosystem partners that exist here in Indiana.”