Also referred to as the Uber for trucks, Trella is a trucking platform that connects shippers with trucks, driving efficiency in a highly inefficient logistics industry. It is an idea whose time has come. The digital freight platform, launched in 2018, has already carved its niche in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Pakistan. Much of the credit goes to the company’s founder Omar Hagrass who led Uber Eats’ expansion plans in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It’s here that he sowed the idea of trucking as a service. His desire is now to empower the communities around him and make his platform global. Shippers enter priced contracts with Trella and post loads on the platform, which immediately generates prices for carriers, who can book the load. Once a carrier delivers the load, Trella pays the carrier and invoices the shipper.
The company currently has a 5 to 8 percent take rate — the fee charged by a marketplace on a transaction done by the third party — which could be maximized during critical masses of supply and demand, pushing the take rate up to 15 percent without affecting carrier returns. After expanding into the Kingdom and Pakistan, it completed a $42 million post series A round of funding, compromising $30 million in equity and $12 million in debt, and allocating the investment into product development and strengthening market position. The freight industry has seen massive growth in the last few years. In 2021, logistics startups alone bagged the highest funding in Egypt, amounting to $177 million. Last month, a Saudi-based digital freight network TruKKer raised $96 million in a mix of equity and debt for its Series B funding. Trella’s unique competitive advantage is a team with an experience to launch tech products across the EMEA region, access to large venture capitals and strategic partners, connect with shareholders like ExxonMobil, and background of building a proper marketplace.