US-based trucking operations software provider TrueNorth received $50m today in a series B round that included Flexport Fund, a vehicle for freight forwarder Flexport.
Lachy Groom co-led the round with fellow private investors Sam, Max and Jack Altman, and it included Tribe Capital, Original Capital, K5 Global, 137 Ventures and Fifth Down Capital, taking the company’s equity funding to $61.8m. It also raised $10m in debt financing to help it pre-pay drivers before invoices are settled.
TrueNorth has built a work management software platform in a bid to help truck drivers operate more independently.
Typically, truckers work for a fleet management company which assigns shipments with stable yet meagre pay. Autonomous drivers on the other hand struggle to secure loads and manage customers on their own while dealing with outdated and analogue work processes.
Jin Stedge, TrueNorth’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “Many of our drivers are taking home twice – some even more – than what they did previously.
“We increase their revenue by helping them find the highest-paying trucking jobs and making it dead-simple to book them. We decrease their costs by consolidating all vendors in one place and offering steep discounts on fuel, insurance, and equipment.
“Operating a single truck costs well over $100,000 a year before the driver gets paid. By offering truckers a single platform to manage their entire businesses, we help them truly understand and minimise their spend.”
Startup accelerator operator Y Combinator provided $600,000 for TrueNorth in February 2020 having included the company in its winter 2020 cohort. It then raised $3m in funding two months later at a $15m valuation, before Groom led an $8.5m series A round at an unspecified date.
Flexport also took part in a $115m series B round for CloudTrucks, which provides a similar service to TrueNorth, last week, indicating the potential of the trucking digitalisation space. Other contenders in the sector include Next Trucking, and those companies contrast markedly with driverless shipping technology developers such as Plus and CargoX.
Regarding the emergence of CloudTruck, Stedge told TechCrunch this week: “We serve the same customer, which is independent truckers, [but] I think it is good, to be honest.
“It is a humongous market – it is a $100bn market, just in these independent truckers and small fleets. So the more people who are helping owner operations and who are doing that marketing and brand awareness, the better.”
Photo courtesy of TrueNorth.
