Logistician Trucksters wants to bring e-trucks to long-distance routes

Spanish carrier Trucksters has closed a €33m Series B funding round and announced plans to electrify parts of its long-distance freight service. New investors include Continental, Volvo and the European Investment Bank.

With its AI and big data based truck swapping system, Trucksters provides long-distance freight transportation services and wants to be one of the first to drive electric long-distance. Soon, the Spaniards want to start using several electric vans, the number of which will increase throughout the year. By the end of 2023, one of the tracks served by Trucksters must be 100% electric. More on that in a moment.

First to the now-completed funding round, in which Continental, Volvo and the European Investment Bank, among others, joined existing investors, including German fund Amplifier VC, Spanish funds BigSur Ventures, Bonsai Partners, Kibo Ventures, The Valley VC and international fund Metavallon VC. . According to the company, the European Investment Bank (EIB) was funded as part of the European program InvestEU.

The more than €33m raised now should enable the company to “achieve some of its strategic objectives, including the electrification of roads, which could make Trucksters the first company in Europe to transport goods on electrified long-distance roads,” as stated in the paper. Notice emailed to us by Trucksters. The company cites strengthening its IT and management teams and opening up new international corridors as other goals.

The logistics specialist, founded in 2018, has already closed the first round with 14.3 million euros in March 2022. The core of the company’s business is the “innovative paging system” which is mainly used to address large clients. “Trucksters offers them fast and reliable solutions, such as expanding their fleet to meet growing demand.” Currently, the customer base is said to include more than 600 global companies, including Samsung, Bosch, LG, DHL and Nestlé.

Trucksters currently operates in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Poland, the United Kingdom, France and Spain. Routes have been operating since 2020 from Spain to abroad. Specifically, there are four main corridors: from central/northern Spain to Dortmund, from the Spanish eastern coast to the Benelux countries and western Germany, from the Spanish eastern coast to Poland and, as of this year, from central Spain to Great Britain. The company has not specified which of these lanes should be electrified by the end of 2023.

According to company statistics, Trucksters moved more than 600 trucks and completed about 2,000 so-called deportation tours last year. The deportation principle is applied to logistics, so to speak, and the trucks only cover part of the way before that. Exchange the payload and return to the starting point. Truck drivers want to master this principle thanks to an AI-controlled relay system – they talk about “rapid relay transport”.

Luis Bardají, co-founder and CEO of Trucksters, assures that when it was founded, it was unimaginable that “just a few years later we would formalize a partnership like the one we just signed with Volvo and Continental”. Having them as our shareholders is a dream: driver-centric safety, sustainability and electrification are the elements that drove us to create Trucksters, and at the same time are the hallmarks of both companies. We can learn a lot from what they have already created and look forward to starting this new phase together.”

The two aforementioned players have their say in the Spaniards’ statement: Jürgen Bello, General Manager of the Institutional Venture Capital Unit at Continental, comments: “The investment in Trucksters is in line with our mobility vision, which includes innovative data-driven fleet management solutions, guaranteed operational efficiency and promoting sustainable growth. In addition to the excellent team and strong business model, we are convinced that the Trucksters solution will revolutionize fleet management and shape the future of transportation.”

“We admire what Trucksters has achieved and see that the Volvo Group can add important strategic value to the development of the company. With the growing needs in the field of freight transportation, interconnected systems can provide a solid structure for long-distance electrification as well as autonomous solutions in the future,” said Martin Witt, President Volvo Venture Capital Group.
Source: Information via emailAnd prnewswire.com