TruKKer CEO and founder explains how his fast-growing company can benefit from the pandemic disruption in the Kingdom and the Middle East
DUBAI: Midway through our Zoom call, Gaurav Biswas threw a big statistic into the mix: “One interesting fact I’ve learned is that Saudi Arabia has the highest per capita number of trucks in the world,” he revealed with a flourish.
Biswas is the founder and CEO of TruKKer, the Uber of the trucking business and one of the fastest-growing logistics companies in the Middle East. Trucking statistics are his forte, and Saudi Arabia is the main growth focus for his four-year-old company.
“Saudi Arabia continues to amaze me with how innovation is accelerating at such a rapid pace. Young Saudis are so ambitious, believe in technology, and are keen to deliver,” he said.
He told how the idea for TruKKer — which recently completed one of the biggest early rounds of capital raising in the region with a $23 million funding from some of its biggest investors — first came to him.
“I was having dinner with a friend who works in fertilizer manufacture. He was very agitated because he was let down by a haulage firm for a delivery the following day. It ruined dinner, but we saw an opportunity,” he related.
Like Uber or Careem, TruKKer users can order their vehicle via an app under the slogan “any truck, any time, anywhere.”
Since it launched in 2016 as the region’s first technology-enabled truck aggregator, it has gained 12,000 drivers and trucks to keep the Middle East’s commercial lifelines moving, even in the trying circumstances of pandemic lockdowns and transport restrictions.
Biswas said he was “inspired” by similar tech-based haulage businesses in China and the US, but regards the Gulf region as especially suited to the concept. “Trucking is so fragmented here it makes even more sense than cabs. There’s a lot of smart investment going into an extremely fragmented business,” he said.
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