UAE’s Trukker raises $23 million Series A for its digital freight marketplace, plans expansion to Egypt

Trukker, an Abu Dhabi-based truck aggregator has raised $23 million Series A led by STV (Saudi Technology Ventures), the investment firm announced in a statement to MENAbytes. According to our data, it is the largest Series A ever raised by a logistics startup in the Middle East & North Africa. Having raised $4.1 million previously, this round brings Trukker’s total capital raised so far to $27.1 million.

The round also included participation from International Financial Corporation, Endeavor Catalyst, and Middle East Venture Partners, as new investors. Existing investors including Riyad Taqnia Fund, Oman Technology Fund, Iliad Partners, and Shorooq Ventures (prev. Shorooq Partners) also joined the round.

Founded in 2016 by Gaurav Biswas and Pradeep Mallavarapu, Trukker’s digital freight marketplace connects transporters with consumers and businesses to provide logistics services. It enables instant booking, real-time demand and supply matching, digital price discovery, cargo tracking, and digitization of document processing of land freight.

The startup primarily focuses on road freight, servicing long haul cross-country, port movements and last-mile delivery of large bulky cargo. According to its website, Trukker also allows users to book a truck by trip or day or help users move their offers home or office.

Trukker according to the statement operates across GCC moving cargo all over GCC and the rest of Middle East & North Africa for over 200 clients with its network of 15,000+ trucks.

Gaurav Biswas, Trukker’s co-founder and CEO, commenting on the occasion, said, “The latest funding round will be instrumental as we target significant strengthening of our operations, infrastructure, expansion of our team and further enhancements to our technology and R&D. We’re tremendously excited to work with STV and all of the co-investors who are supporting our vision and enabling us to continue to grow in the region. We are evolving rapidly to become the region’s trucking freight exchange that facilitates transparency and efficiencies based commercial advantages for our users.”

Trukker’s co-founder and CTO, Pradeep Mallavarapu, said, “We are a transportation operating business with a technology DNA. We provide the necessary visibility and key data metrics on thousands of trucks on our network and we match demand for trucks with reliable transporters who are looking for business. Our solutions that are focussed on enhancing the experience for both the transporters and the cargo owners focused on improved efficiencies. This means regular jobs and prompt payments, better livelihood and convenience for our transporters alongside high levels of reliability, analytics, and lower transportation costs for the cargo owners.”

Ahmad AlNaimi, STV’s Investment Principal, said, “Trukker is bringing efficiency to a logistics market that is ripe for disruption. Adoption for a digital freight platform has grown significantly. There is substantial demand from customers for better freight management, driven by data and information all situated in one platform. TruKKer has all the attributes to become a leader in the Middle East land transportation sector and will use this funding to go after the regions’ logistics sector, which is set to reach $66 billion by 2020.”

The startup will use the latest investment to grow its team, enhance experience and strengthen its operating infrastructure across the road freight network in the region. It also plans to expand its services to Egypt by the end of this year and later to Jordan and some other countries in the region.

In Egypt, Trukker will be competing with the YC-backed one-year-old Trella that had raised $600,000 in a pre-seed round earlier this year. In the GCC, Trukker’s competitors include Trukkin that had raised $3.5 million less than six months ago and Load-Me.