Trukker secures $96m to fund expansion in ME, Central Asia

Tukker has announced that it raised $96 million through Series B equity and a debt funding round to fund expansion in the Middle East and Central Asia in addition to launching new products and features.

The Saudi-headquartered digital freight network serving the Middle East and Central Asia, Trukker said it raised funds in a mix of equity and debt financing with regional and global backing, positioning the startup as a rising star in the transport and logistics market in the region.

The investments were led by Abu Dhabi state holding company ADQ and Riyadh-based Saudi Technology Ventures, while Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company and other existing investors also participated in the fund raising.

“Existing investors including the Public Investment Fund-backed Riyad Taqnia Fund and Shorooq Partners also took part,” according to a statement on Monday.

On track for sustainable growth

As part of the financing round, the company also raised $50 million in venture debt from Mars Growth, a Liquidity Group and MUFG joint venture fund, and San Francisco-based Partners for Growth, backed by the Silicon Valley Bank.

Trukker, which raised $23 million in its Series A funding round in 2019, describes itself as an online marketplace that connects transporters with consumers and businesses to provide logistics services. Since its inception in the B2B space in 2018, the company operates across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia with a network of more than 40,000 trucks and 700+ enterprise customers across eight countries.

“Trukker will deploy the fresh funds to deepen its presence across all our existing markets and launch several new products and features,” said Amit Agarwal, Trukker’s chief financial officer and a former investment banker of Goldman Sachs Group.

Exploring new markets

Gaurav Biswas, founder and chief executive of Trukker said the Trukker's growth has been exponential, both in our home markets of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and in new markets across North Africa and Central Asia.

"Trukker will continue to build stronger foundations and lane densities in our core markets of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt along with aggressive growth in our new markets. In 2022, we will scale into 10+ markets and focus on automation of the network," Biswas told Khaleej Times on Monday.

He there will be significant investments into product and new monetisation opportunities of the data that has been building on the platform over the last four years.

“This has made our stakeholders believe in our exceptional product innovation, execution abilities, and category leadership. We are constantly improvising on the launch playbook that allows us to rapidly launch new markets followed by scaling our offering in them,” he said.

“At the same time, the core market teams are becoming more data and analytics-driven in business processes to ensure improving user experience, setting standards, and leading the sector’s direction. We are a constantly evolving team with a passion for problem-solving, hunger for growth, and obsession to succeed," he added.

ADQ sustainable investment

Amer Al Ameri, head of venture capital and technology investments at ADQ, said TruKKer is a sector leader in the region and aligns with ADQ’s long-term strategy towards sustainable investments in fundamental sectors.

“We are strong believers in TruKKer’s technology and team to overhaul the regional logistics sector. This is an opportune time to drive growth in the sector as the world focuses on digitisation and technology like never before,” he said.

Ahmad AlNaimi, general partner at STV, said Trukker is building a platform that is set to become the de-facto infrastructure for land freight in the region, seamlessly connecting the atoms and the bits, with superior execution and operations.

“We’ve been part of TruKKer’s journey since 2019 and we’re proud to be doubling down and partnering with ADQ and Mubadala,” AlNajmi said.

Pradeep Mallavarapu, Trukker co-founder and CTO, said the sector requires a strong operating business that can demonstrate the use of high-tech solutions to solve multiple simple and complex issues at the same time.

"Our products focus on simplicity with sophisticated back-end algorithms that are multilayered for multi-tenanted access in parallel,” he said.

—sandhya@khaleejtimes.com