Matters Graph Sector Coverage

Planes, trains, boats, trucks, and automobiles. The Transportation and Logistics sector moves goods and people across geographies and industries, spanning everything from highly consolidated segments, such as commercial airlines, to highly fragmented spaces, like freight brokerage. It's an ecosystem that touches nearly every part of the global economy, and its diversity presents both challenges and opportunities for investors.

Within logistics—covering freight carriers, freight brokerage, fleet services, last-mile delivery, transportation technology, and more—change is constant. Customer expectations evolve rapidly, driven by shifts in e-commerce, sustainability mandates, and digital enablement. Cost structures can be volatile, influenced by factors such as fuel prices, labor dynamics, and regulatory shifts. As a result, conducting Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) effectively requires more than market sizing or trend analysis; it demands deep, structured insight into how stakeholders make decisions across the value chain.

Matters Graph delivers excellence in Voice of Customer and Voice of Stakeholder research, engaging a diverse array of stakeholders to uncover how preferences, pain points, and procurement decisions take shape. These role players include shippers, 3PLs, fleet managers, logistics and procurement leads, channel partners, transit authorities, and other key influencers within customer organizations. The goal is to uncover not only what is happening, but also why—and how those dynamics might evolve.

Matters Graph has worked across all major modes of transportation and logistics: rail, trucking, marine, automotive, virtual delivery, couriers, carriers, charter airlines, private aviation, and more. Our experience spans various operational nodes, including fleets, brokers, software providers, maintenance terminals, fueling stations, and even niche areas such as scooter networks and paper delivery services. This breadth allows us to understand both the macro forces and the micro-frictions that define competitiveness in the space.

The sector's diversity also creates a wide aperture for investment strategies. Whether targeting asset-heavy infrastructure plays or asset-light tech platforms, the Diligence must align asset risk and return profiles with the investor's thesis. Matters Graph has supported clients ranging from two of the top three global infrastructure funds to major industrial buyout teams, boutique logistics software startups, and several of the most significant growth equity firms.

In every case, our approach to CDD is grounded in understanding the real-world behaviors and incentives that drive market outcomes. We combine primary research with data science capabilities to test hypotheses at scale, ensuring that our clients have a robust, evidence-based view of the opportunity—and the risks.

Recent Matters Graph Transportation and Logistics project examples include (for details on Matters Graph Diligence exercises covered by PitchBook, click on the PitchBook icons below to view deal details):