Descartes cruises into Latin America with acquisition of last-mile management platform Drivin

By July 6, 2026
A transport truck zooms down a freeway
Waterloo-based logistics tech firm makes its 37th acquisition since 2016.

Waterloo-based supply-chain technology firm Descartes is building out its logistics portfolio in Latin America with the acquisition of Santiago, Chile-based Drivin. 

The news: Descartes bought Drivin on Monday for $30 million USD ($42.6 million CAD) in cash, with the potential to add up to another $5 million USD, depending on revenue milestones over the next two years. 

Much like Descartes, Drivin’s transportation management system (TMS) software helps distributors, retailers, and logistics services manage and plan their delivery routes, factoring in variables like driver working hours, customer receiving windows, and vehicle capacity, while tracking the delivery fleet in real time. 

From the source: Descartes general manager of fleet performance management solutions James Wee cited the “significant volume” of logistics data and operational metadata it now has from Drivin’s Latin American deliveries, which will help improve its AI training, predictive analytics, and route optimization abilities. 

Wee said this will lead to “faster, more reliable delivery” amidst growing urban congestion and route complexity.

Following the thread: Founded in 1981 and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange since 1998 under the symbol $DSG, Descartes has made acquisitions of other freight, transportation, and supply chain management companies a key part of its business model. The company most recently acquired Pittsburgh-based safety intelligence platform Idelic this past April. A spokesperson told BetaKit at the time that the deal marked Descartes’s 36th acquisition since 2016.

Final thought: Descartes laid off seven percent of its staff last year due to “very challenging and uncertain market conditions” from the United States’ tariff policies, which slowed down international trade. While the company seems to be recovering—Descartes’s most recent earnings report says revenue has jumped 15 percent since that time last year—its stock price has dropped 25 percent over the past year and barely moved on news of the Drivin acquisition. 

Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Artem Balashevsky.

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