A fintech platform called Trukkr for Pakistan's trucking sector claimed to have acquired $6.4 million in a financing round and been granted an NBFC licence.
Trukkr is special in that it offers fintech to digitise the predominantly unbanked and undocumented industry. It provides small- and medium-sized trucking enterprises in Pakistan with a transport management system and supply chain solutions.
Accion Venture Lab in the United States and Sturgeon Capital in London took the lead in the seed fundraising round. According to a statement from Trukkr, the round also included investors Peter Findley, Al Zayani Venture Capital, and Haitou Global.
The company's business strategy has been modified for the Pakistani market but is similar to those used by Kargo in Indonesia, Solvento in Mexico, and Kobo 360 in Africa.
Less than 5% of trucking companies using Trukkr's platform have access to financial services, which means they frequently have to wait up to 90 days for payments and are unable to pay for costs like fuel, tolls, and truck maintenance.
Trukkr's CEO and co-founder Sheryar Bawany told that the company planned to introduce financial products with a "fair risk adjusted spread" in comparison to the industry standard Karachi Interbank Offered Rate (KIBOR).
About 20,000 drivers, according to co-founder Mishal Adamjee, work for 100 of the largest enterprises in the nation, including Shan Foods, Artistic Milliners, International Industries Limited, and Lucky Cement.
According to Adamjee despite a lack of adequate rail and water freight infrastructure, Pakistan's $35 billion per year trucking business is expanding at a rate of 10% annually.
The Covid epidemic, according to investor Accion Venture Lab, demonstrated just how dependent the world is on international supply networks.
"We want to bet on a company striving to tackle inefficiencies in a market filled with opportunities," it said in the statement.
According to Pakistan’s Board of Investment, projected demand for freight transport will double by 2025 and increase six-fold by 2050 to 600 billion freight tonnes-kilometre, particularly as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor kicks in.
Truck It In, BridgeLinx, and Freightix are three other freight trade businesses in Pakistan.