CloudTrucks, a tech-driven trucking company based in the US, announced that it has raised $115 million in a Series B funding round led by Tiger Global to facilitate intelligence-based trucking services. Other participants in the round include Menlo Ventures, Flexport and angel investors Michael Ovitz and Opendoor CEO Eric Wu.
Founded 2019 by Tobenna Arodiogbu, George Ezenna and Jin Shieh, the company has witnessed record-setting growth for a two-year old startup. CloudTrucks raised $20.5 million in a Series A funding round last year, bringing the total capital raised to $141.6 million.
CloudTrucks uses technology to streamline administrative bottlenecks—making it easier for drivers to run their business and produce more revenue, especially in the United States, one of the largest trucking markets in the world.
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In the U.S., trucking is responsible for most of the overland freight movement, with the market being worth 791.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. At that time, there were over 947,000 truck drivers employed in the U.S., which is less than the industry requires. Currently, the market is grappling with driver-shortage amidst government’s struggle to accelerate both domestic and international supply chain.
CloudTrucks says the new funding will enable it to expand existing services, create new ones and help small trucking businesses and entrepreneurs streamline administrative bottlenecks and keep more revenue. Areas of priority includes expanding its technology to meet the needs of more drivers, grow its existing team, and broaden its digital integration with brokers and shippers.
CEO Tobenna Arodiogbu, says the idea is to change the status quo in the trucking industry with modern techniques that will benefit owner-opeartors. He says the trucking industry has been rapidly changing and getting much more complex, while the owner-operators, the lifeblood of the trucking industry, were being left behind. So the company wanted to change this by building something from the ground up to ensure that owner-operators — and really all trucking entrepreneurs — have the tools to succeed and thrive in the industry.
“Nearly every sector of the economy relies on drivers to transport its goods and we are eager to use this latest round of funding to continue optimizing the trucking business—especially as our country needs new truck drivers more than ever,” he says. “We’ve seen the number of loads completed on our platform grow 8x since last year, and we recognize the importance of providing a complete business-in-a-box solution for drivers to make the most of every run.”
CloudTrucks’ determination to solve the challenges in the trucking industry is seen in the number of new products it has launched recently. Over the past year, CloudTrucks has launched these three new products: CT Cash, Flex, and Business Intelligence. CT Cash is designed for drivers who are looking to get paid faster and alleviate cash-flow constraints, providing instant pay and cash card options in addition to receiving cash advances.
Similar to Virtual Carrier, CloudTrucks’ existing product for independent owner-operators, the new Flex product line is designed exclusively for small trucking businesses and those drivers who are not looking to drive under CloudTrucks’ authority. In addition, CloudTrucks’ Business Intelligence dashboard provides a comprehensive breakdown of a driver’s performance, personal expenses and revenue for drivers to better determine how they can yield the most profit.
“CloudTrucks has always seen the trucking industry as the backbone of America and has made it its mission to create world-class tools and services that empower truck drivers to make a greater profit with fewer headaches,” said John Curtius, Partner, Tiger Global Management. “We’re excited to see the company continue to transform some of the industry’s broken practices like antiquated payment services and processes.”