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Pakistan’s Trukkr raises $600,000 seed for its trucking marketplace
Karachi-headquartered trucking marketplace Trukkr has raised $600,000 in seed funding led by Peter Findley, it told MENAbytes today. The investor is a General Partner at Anchorless, a New York-headquartered VC focused on Bangladesh. The deal also included participation from Pakistan-focused investor Kinnow VC, Kargo Technologies’ founder and CEO Tiger Fang, and an executive from Cue Health. In addition to the equity investment, the startup has also raised an undisclosed amount of money in debt financing.
Founded in 2020 by Sheryar Bawany, Waqas Khatri, Ali Haji, Mishal Adamjee, and Kasra Zunnaiyer, Trukkr helps businesses transport their goods across Pakistan using its network of transporters. Its marketplace features vetted transporters and truck drivers and matches loads in real-time, with transparent (and fair) pricing for both the parties. Since its launch, the startup claims to have served 20,000 trucking movements for different businesses in Pakistan including leading large corporations like Artistic Milliners, Ittehad Chemicals, and Master Group.
Trukkr has also built a dedicated logistics management platform that can be used by companies to manage their fleet, clients, and transporters. The platform is completely free-to-use for Trukkr’s customers.
There are at least ten local and regional online trucking marketplaces operating in Pakistan. Speaking about how they’re different, Trukkr’s co-founder Waqas Khatri told MENAbytes that their tech is world-class and is being used by some of the largest corporations in the country, “They’re not only using our marketplace to move their goods all over Pakistan but our online software as well to manage their entire logistics operations.”
Peter Findley seems to agree with the bit about tech, “Trukkr’s technology is top in a category not just in Pakistan but also in global markets. Its management team has a great understanding of how to implement the freight solution. Their knowledge of graph theory allows them to understand routes in a manner that minimizes waste. This leads to an ability to improve the carbon footprint of the trucking industry and also their partners.”
Prior to starting Trukkr, its co-founder Sheryar Bawany used to lead a logistics company in Karachi. After doing that for ten years, he teamed up with his co-founders to solve the inefficiencies in the local trucking industry using tech, “With an experienced operations team led by the founders, and a strong, comprehensive and localized tech platform built in house, we have completed more than 20,000 trips since we started operations in 2020, and the positive response from our customers has been overwhelming,” he stated in a conversation with MENAbytes.
Faaez Ul Haq from Kinnow VC said, “We are thrilled to invest in Trukkr as they take on the massive opportunity that the Pakistani freight market represents. We looked at several players in this space, and the Trukkr team stood out for their deep expertise, ability to quickly execute, and a rich product offering.”
The startup plans to use the latest funds to further enhance its technology and expand its operations.
Jul 5 – 5:30 pm GMT: The story was updated with some details.
Zubair Naeem Paracha
A tech and startup enthusiast based in Lahore, Pakistan. Zubair apart from leading MENAbytes is also building Qraar, a career discovery and development platform for millennials in MENA. He can be reached on Linkedin, Twitter or zubair [at] menabytes [dot] com.
Karachi-headquartered trucking marketplace Trukkr has raised $600,000 in seed funding led by Peter Findley, it told MENAbytes today. The investor is a General Partner at Anchorless, a New York-headquartered VC focused on Bangladesh. The deal also included participation from Pakistan-focused investor Kinnow VC, Kargo Technologies’ founder and CEO Tiger Fang, and an executive from Cue Health. In addition to the equity investment, the startup has also raised an undisclosed amount of money in debt financing.
Founded in 2020 by Sheryar Bawany, Waqas Khatri, Ali Haji, Mishal Adamjee, and Kasra Zunnaiyer, Trukkr helps businesses transport their goods across Pakistan using its network of transporters. Its marketplace features vetted transporters and truck drivers and matches loads in real-time, with transparent (and fair) pricing for both the parties. Since its launch, the startup claims to have served 20,000 trucking movements for different businesses in Pakistan including leading large corporations like Artistic Milliners, Ittehad Chemicals, and Master Group.
Trukkr has also built a dedicated logistics management platform that can be used by companies to manage their fleet, clients, and transporters. The platform is completely free-to-use for Trukkr’s customers.
There are at least ten local and regional online trucking marketplaces operating in Pakistan. Speaking about how they’re different, Trukkr’s co-founder Waqas Khatri told MENAbytes that their tech is world-class and is being used by some of the largest corporations in the country, “They’re not only using our marketplace to move their goods all over Pakistan but our online software as well to manage their entire logistics operations.”
Peter Findley seems to agree with the bit about tech, “Trukkr’s technology is top in a category not just in Pakistan but also in global markets. Its management team has a great understanding of how to implement the freight solution. Their knowledge of graph theory allows them to understand routes in a manner that minimizes waste. This leads to an ability to improve the carbon footprint of the trucking industry and also their partners.”
Prior to starting Trukkr, its co-founder Sheryar Bawany used to lead a logistics company in Karachi. After doing that for ten years, he teamed up with his co-founders to solve the inefficiencies in the local trucking industry using tech, “With an experienced operations team led by the founders, and a strong, comprehensive and localized tech platform built in house, we have completed more than 20,000 trips since we started operations in 2020, and the positive response from our customers has been overwhelming,” he stated in a conversation with MENAbytes.
Faaez Ul Haq from Kinnow VC said, “We are thrilled to invest in Trukkr as they take on the massive opportunity that the Pakistani freight market represents. We looked at several players in this space, and the Trukkr team stood out for their deep expertise, ability to quickly execute, and a rich product offering.”
The startup plans to use the latest funds to further enhance its technology and expand its operations.
Jul 5 – 5:30 pm GMT: The story was updated with some details.
Zubair Naeem Paracha
A tech and startup enthusiast based in Lahore, Pakistan. Zubair apart from leading MENAbytes is also building Qraar, a career discovery and development platform for millennials in MENA. He can be reached on Linkedin, Twitter or zubair [at] menabytes [dot] com.
