Kenya-based P2P trucking logistics marketplace Amitruck has seen revenues grow by 300 per cent in the last 12 months, with its app downloaded more than 10,000 times.
Launched in 2019, Amitruck is a trucking logistics marketplace that seeks to bring trust, transparency and efficiency to transport. The startup’s platform connects transporters directly with cargo owners via its web or mobile application, avoiding middlemen.
Transporters bid for work on the platform, ensuring competitive prices, while cargo owners have convenient access to a range of competitive offers and can choose a transporter based on price, rating and experience.
Since it was launched, the Amitruck customer-side mobile app has been downloaded more than 10,000 times, while the startup has seen a 300 per cent increase in revenues over the last 12 months.
“We are happy to have among our customers a number of successful companies like Twiga Foods and Sky.Garden. On the supply side, Amitruck is now able to serve any kind of cargo need, having all types of vehicles available on the platform, from motorcycles to 28T trucks,” Mark Mwangi, Amitruck’s chief executive officer (CEO), told Disrupt Africa.
Mwangi founded the startup against the backdrop of the difficulties and inefficiencies he himself had faced when hiring a truck in Kenya. He said even though around 80 per cent of all goods are transported by road, Kenya’s transportation ecosystem remains highly fragmented and inefficient, leading to difficulties for both truckers and their customers.
“As a result for most fast moving consumer goods today in the country, up to 75 per cent of the end-price paid by consumers is to cover for logistics and warehousing costs. Until Amitruck, there was no single convenient place to get secure and reliable transport,” he said.
The startup, which works on a commission-based model, is competing against traditional brokers, as well as other technology-based companies entering the market.
“However, we see ourselves at the forefront of Kenya’s logistic sector, being the only company that offers a full end-to-end technical integration, with competitive bidding and instant partner payments,” said Mwangi.
Self-funded at first, Amitruck in April received funding and company building support from GreenTec Capital Partners, and has also taken part in a host of accelerators, most recently the Africa Transformative Mobility Accelerator. For now operating only in Kenya, Mwangi said it does have plans to expand throughout East Africa and beyond.
