Fluid Truck has actually built an app-based platform that intends to eliminate the discomfort and cost of owning or leasing business lorries, all while grabbing market share from recognized companies like Penske, Ryder and U-Haul.
Now, it has the capital to help it get there. The Denver-based company said Tuesday it raised $63 million in a Series A funding round to expand its truck-sharing platform, which helps mid-mile and last-mile delivery business from another location manage an on-demand rental fleet via web or mobile app. Personal equity firm Bison Capital led the round, with participation from Ingka Investments (part of Ingka Group, the primary Ikea seller), Sumitomo Corporation of Americas and Fluid Lorry Owners.
The investment, its very first external round, follows fast development at the four-year-old company. Founder and CEO James Eberhard informed TechCrunch that profits increased 100x in the last two years. That type of development sounds promising, but the company did not provide a standard, so it’s difficult to evaluate scale.
With e-commerce expected to continue to increase at a global 9.5% substance annual growth rate from 2020 to 2025, the demand for accessible trucks for hire might see correlative growth. It’s no surprise that e-commerce is one of the industries Fluid Truck has actually targeted.
Fluid Truck, which runs in 25 U.S. markets, runs like the car-sharing business Zipcar, with a business bent. Businesses such as moving and e-commerce shipment companies can use the platform to rent trucks. Fluid Truck’s pitch to services extends beyond the “you don’t require to purchase or lease” argument. The platform likewise allows shipment business to ignore having a manager on staff who would handle, keep and eventually sell the fleet.
Businesses eager to outsource the acquiring and handling of their trucks can discover fleets for hire in commercial parks and retail locations within Fluid’s service network.
“You can hop on our platform, lease a truck and be in it in a matter of minutes, which really enables companies to scale up and scale down,” said Eberhard. “We’re watching our user behavior go from a location where they used to own every car they needed at a time to a place where they’re now getting spare capability off Fluid.”
Eberhard wants to see that type of extra usage change into an end state where business do not own a single truck and run solely on Fluid Truck’s platform.
Fluid Truck argues that its tech stack, which is developed to ravel the booking and renting process, provides it a competitive edge in a market controlled by the likes of U-Haul, Ryder and or other little depots. Eberhard said the procedure of going to a depot and waiting in line is sluggish and sloppy, whereas Fluid Truck’s app makes renting a van as easy as calling an Uber.
“We take all those complexities away and enable people to have a virtual fleet,” Eberhard informed TechCrunch.
Fluid Truck’s fleet is made up of thousands– and soon to be tens of thousands– of cargo vans, pickup, large box trucks and various other cars. The company likewise declares to have the biggest medium-duty EV rental fleet in the United States, which it continues to expand as it deals with OEMs to increase fleet capacity. Electric vehicles still comprise less than 1% of its total portfolio due to the slower adoption of EVs on the commercial side.
Eberhard desires Fluid to be a dominant force in the trucking industry. However Fluid Truck is not the only truck sharing app on the streets. Competitors GoShare and Bungii have comparable offerings.
This substantial round might offer an advantage as it tries to end up being the family name in digital truck sharing. Possibly, as notably, the business has the attention and investment of Ikea.
“This is another action in allowing Ikea retail to provide last mile delivery services to our consumers, continue to improve on our customer promise, while likewise decreasing our ecological footprint,” Krister Mattsson, handling director of Ingka Investments said in a statement, a comment that recommends a future collaboration with Fluid Truck.
With this most current capital round, Fluid’s goal is to (you guessed it) scale outwards, with a concentrate on broadening the group, adding dozens more markets in the U.S. and preparing to take Fluid into the EU and Canada.
Fluid Truck will also be investing back into its own tech stack, which includes an internal exclusive telematics platform to predict and automate servicing and maintenance of the business’s fleet.
Article curated by RJ Shara from Source. RJ Shara is a Bay Area Radio Host (Radio Jockey) who talks about the startup ecosystem – entrepreneurs, investments, policies and more on her show The Silicon Dreams. The show streams on Radio Zindagi 1170AM on Mondays from 3.30 PM to 4 PM.
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