Truckola, which provides full truckload cargo transportation, has raised $600,000 in its seed funding round via angel investment platform LetsVenture. The round was led by Abhishek Agarwal of FIFL.
Other investors who participated in the round include, the Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah via his company Al Hamra Group; Krishnakumar Natarajan, Sarath Sura, Shanti Mohan, Sarthak & Nihit Agarwal and Suramya Gupta.
As per the company, the newly raised funds will be used to enhance its technology, marketing efforts and further improve its operations.
Truckola was founded by Raghav Himatsingka, Keshav Himatsingka, and Vipul Garg in 2015. They believe that they are disrupting the industry by making cargo transportation cost optimal, convenient and stress free for everybody from drivers to cargo owners.
Commenting about this funding round, Raghav Himatsingka said,
We couldn’t be more excited to team up with our investors. We are incredibly fortunate to partner with a great set of investors who are all achievers and leaders in their respective fields. We look forward not just to the funds, but also their guidance in our journey ahead. It was absolutely fantastic to work with LetsVenture and their team of dedicated, hard working professionals who guide you at every step in the process.
As there are many startups in the same space, the company differentiates itself on 3 distinct fronts – stronger value proposition for all players in the value chain, superior execution to deliver on our value proposition, and clearly defined vision and roadmap to achieve goals for the future.
Abhishek Agarwal, who led this round of investment for Truckola says,
There is a very large market in the interstate transportation space being served by traditional players that needs to be disrupted through technology intervention. I feel that Truckola has the right combination of a committed team and solid technology to lead the change in the industry.
Truckola believes that the transport sector could be a $300 billion industry by 2020. It is highly unorganised, especially because of the lack of structured data, which ultimately leads to lot of disorder in the demand and supply chain across the country. The company aims to solve this problem with data analysis and predictive tools, thus lowering cost and making better utilisation of the available vehicles.
Startups in this space have raised significant amount of funding. Porter, an on-demand logistics marketplace providing commercial vehicles has raised about $6 million in two funding rounds. Hyperlocal logistics startup Opinio has also raised a ton of money, amounting to $8.3 million till date. Other startups like Shadowfax and Rivigo have also raised funds in angel and seed rounds respectively.
