Egyptian trucking platform Trella is planning on taking its growth “step-by-step” in spite of securing US$600,000 in funding last month.
B2B trucking marketplace Trella, founded last year, connects shippers with carriers in real-time, with the goal of making the entire supply chain faster and more reliable while reducing slack and exceptions.
It empowers drivers and reduces costs for shippers by improving load utilisation and efficiency, offering transparent pricing schedules, and enabling shipment tracking in real-time.
Disrupt Africa reported last month the startup had raised more than US$600,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Algebra Ventures, but chief executive officer (CEO) Omar Hagrass says the team will be making no hasty moves.
“We are focusing on taking things step-by-step, no need to take any hasty decisions at the moment. We’re trying to build a scalable product and this will come by closely working with our product team,” he told Disrupt Africa.
Hagrass heads up a founding team with serious pedigree. He himself previously served us regional manager for EMEA launch and expansion at Uber, while co-founders Pierre Saad and Muhammad El Garem previously worked for Vezeeta and OLX respectively. Hagrass said the team is now surrounded by “some of the strongest investors in the world”, and has more than 10 leading companies already on board or in the final stages of discussion.
“The market is ripe for distribution; competition is low and no one has managed to crack it down in Egypt yet. We’re hoping that through an advanced product we can have some quick wins and solve real issues shippers and carriers are facing,” he said.
Trella, which has a blended commission model and has already done hundreds of trips in just a few weeks, is currently only focused on Egypt, but has bigger plans.
“We’re lucky to have strategic investors who could help us expand regionally, into Africa and the Middle East, provided we get things right here in Cairo first. We are also eyeing product expansion and not only focused on expanding our footprint,” said Hagrass.
Trust is the major issue faced by Trella so far.
“In an industry that has zero transparency, few people trusted us and fewer people believe that tech will work in this industry. By guaranteeing them enough demand, at good prices, you slowly start gaining their trust,” he said.
“Slowly” and “step-by-step” are the names of the game, but with serious investor backing Trella has grand plans.
