The rise in e-commerce has made trucking an more and more important trade. Despite twenty first century technological developments which have boosted the trade, it’s nonetheless run primarily by small companies and unbiased truckers — which means it’s fragmented and sometimes working on outdated monetary platforms. Truckers are feeling the ache of excessive prices of gas and antiquated funds methods, resulting in decrease driver retention.
San Francisco-based startup AtoB used these ache factors as a leaping off level for the corporate’s enterprise mannequin. AtoB’s built-in monetary platform is like Stripe for transportation, says Harshita Arora, co-founder of AtoB. The startup’s core product is a gas card for truckers that gives them with gas reductions, card safety and an embedded gas administration software program. The firm has since expanded to supply truckers with immediate payroll companies, and is now concentrating on next-gen fleets (assume rental automotive corporations like Kyte) that want higher back-end monetary methods to help their progress.
AtoB’s historical past is barely a part of what makes this startup story so attention-grabbing. The different half is Arora herself, who’s now 21 years previous, which ought to provide you with a touch as to how early she began on her entrepreneurial path. When Arora was 14, she dropped out of college for tougher pursuits. Two years later, she based the app Crypto Price Tracker, which turned an App Store hit and was acquired by Redwood City Ventures in 2018.
Now, 5 years later, the corporate she co-founded with Vignan Velivela and Tushar Misra has raised a complete $230 million in a mixture of enterprise fairness, debt and strategic working capital. The newest fairness spherical was a $75 million Series B in November 2021, a spherical wherein Eric Tarcyznski of Contrary Capital invested.
Tarcyznski says Contrary’s ethos is to put money into folks, not companies. Today at TechCrunch Live, we’ll discuss to Tarcyznski and Arora about that concept, in addition to:
- How a lot pedigree performs right into a VC’s choice to speculate.
- How the VC and startup world reacts to the Girl Genius versus the Boy Genius.
- How to pivot your small business mannequin gracefully.
- The ache factors of the trucking trade, and why a FinTech product goals to unravel them.
- Why AtoB is pursuing a transportation-focused FinTech answer, quite than a broader FinTech product.
What else ought to we discuss? If you may have some questions you’d like us to ask, please register and watch the present on Hopin.
This TechCrunch Live occasion is free to attend. Register right here for the hourlong occasion. The digital doorways open at 11:30 a.m. PDT for networking and the interview begins at 12:00 p.m. PDT. If you register, you may register for Pitch Practice and ask Eric and Harshita questions.
