Abu Dhabi, UAE: TruKKer ( www.trukker.com ), MENA’s largest digital freight platform, today announced that it has signed a US$10 million strategic venture debt agreement with San Francisco-based specialty lending firm, Partners for Growth (PFG). The transaction marks the first venture debt deal of this scale for any technology business in the Middle East, as well as the first deal for PFG in the region. The debt will be used to finance working capital needs required for the instant payment of thousands of transporters operating on TruKKer’s network.

The deal follows a $23 million equity raise by TruKKer in late 2019, which was one of the largest Series A funding rounds in the region, with participation from STV, IFC, and Endeavor Catalyst, among other prominent regional and international investment funds.

Since its inception in 2016, TruKKer has rapidly grown to become the largest digital freight network in the MENA region, bringing together a fleet of 25,000+ trucks and 500+ B2B customers on to its platform, including leading multi-national consumer products companies.

Amit Agarwal, TruKKer’s Group CFO, highlights: “We are disrupting a very fragmented industry, both operationally and commercially, by using advanced data science and technology tools. One of our essential capabilities is the ability to finance instant payments to the small transporters and owner-operators, while offering standard credit terms for enterprise clients. We have a very diverse and high-quality client base with three years of consistent payment cycles. Having demonstrated performance and substantial growth, financing our expanding working capital needs with a structured debt facility was an obvious next step for us. We are very happy and proud to have a world-class institution like PFG on board.”

The region has complex debt issuance and recourse laws, which makes such transactions challenging for high-growth tech companies like TruKKer.

PFG’s managing director, Jason Geogatos, notes: “TruKKer offers a very interesting proposition for a debt fund to support a diverse and growing portfolio of debtors with a custom facility tailored to enable the company’s rapid expansion. We are very excited about working with the TruKKer team to provide capital to help them scale their impressive platform harnessing the trend of increasing technological adoption to deliver efficiencies across the massive freight industry across the Middle East.”

The transaction is PFG’s first in the region and demonstrates the quickly maturing tech ecosystem in the Middle East, which is gaining attention with international funds like PFG. According to startup data platform MAGNiTT, 2019 saw more international institutions invest in MENA-based startups than any previous year, accounting for 25% of investors.

Jason Geogatos adds: “We will continue to work with TruKKer to support their rapid growth and hope to work with other emerging technology companies as we get familiar with the MENA markets, and build strong relationships in the region.”

The trucking industry employs thousands of entrepreneurs as owner-operator drivers across the world, with the Middle East especially seeing a significant increase in digital freight.

Amit Agarwal concludes: “We are proud to be in a position to finance this very enterprising and hard-working group that currently faces unorganized processes and poor access to conventional financing products. TruKKer’s core business and technology offer key data-driven metrics that allows us to service their needs in a mutually beneficial way.”

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About TruKKer

TruKKer services 500+ businesses for their daily transportation requirements, as the platform connects 25,000+ trucks across the Middle East and North Africa. TruKKer currently employs over 175 people in UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, uplifting the lives of thousands of drivers and cutting costs for shippers by connecting them digitally, improving load utilisation, providing a transparent pricing structure, and improving the efficiency across the logistics sector. TruKKer is currently operating in five countries in the Middle East and North Africa and is presently executing on a wider regional expansion including launching its services in Pakistan.

About PFG

Partners for Growth (PFG), a leading specialty lending firm focused on emerging growth companies, provides secured lending solutions to high growth revenue stage companies across the technology and life sciences sectors globally. PFG has a strategic relationship with Silicon Valley bank (SVB), the largest lender to venture backed technology companies globally. The PFG team has decades of experience working together to structure debt facilities tailored to support the growth and expansion, working capital, and acquisition financing needs for over 200 portfolio companies since the inception.

For more details, please contact:
TruKKer
Amit Agarwal
Group CFO
Amit.agarwal@trukker.com             

PFG
John Riordan
Head of Business Development and Investor Relations
john@pfgrowth.com 

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