NEW PLYMOUTH, Idaho — Christmas came nine months early for the nearly 500 employees of New Plymouth-based tech company Truckstop.com on Thursday.
Announced by the company’s CEO during a teleconference, all employees will receive a bonus check in the amount of their annual salary.
Some employees reacted with screams, others broke into tears of joy.
It's because of a significant investment made by Silicon Valley private equity firm ICONIQ - whose many investors include Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
ICONIQ now owns a majority share of the Idaho company, which said it will use the capital to expand and increase its service to customers.
“We're so excited,” Truckstop.com’s director of customer support, Dawn Painton, said. “Now we're going to be hiring more developers and we are really going to be able to deliver a better way for our carriers. It's just amazing.”
Company founder Scott Moscrip said: “Right now I think it's just relief. Relief that we've got the new investors on board, that we've been able to reward the employees, that the business is now poised for its next big launch forward.”
Truckstop.com is an online service that manages carriers and brokers - basically, those who move loads and those who need those loads moved.
Despite expanding into offices in Phoenix, Illinois and Boise, the company’s founder says the corporate headquarters will remain in his hometown of New Plymouth, Idaho.