Trella, an Egyptian digital freight marketplace startup, announced that it has completed the successful completion of a $42 million funding round, comprising $30 million new equity and $12 million debt facilities.
Participants in this funding round include the leaders, Maersk Growth – the corporate venture arm of global multinational A.P. Moller – Maersk, and Raed Ventures – a Saudi Arabian Venture Capital firm. Other investors include Algebra Ventures, 4DX Ventures, Vision Ventures, Next Billion Ventures, Venture Souq, Foundation Ventures, and Flexport. The debt facilities are being provided by Lendable – the next-generation lending platform and other local financial institutions.
According to Trella Chief Executive Omar Hagrass, the funds would be used to expand in the Gulf Arab region beyond Saudi Arabia over the next 6-9 months and in East and West Africa over the next 12 months. It also aims to hire more staff to support its expansion, including for technical and product related jobs in places like Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
Founded in 2019 by four people – CEO, Omar Hagrass; Chief Operating Officer, Ali El Atrash; Chief Technology Officer, Pierre Saad and Muhammad El Garem, is a technology platform ‘reinventing trucking’ across emerging markets, and has a current market presence in three countries; its home market – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
Trella has 350+ shipper partners including blue-chip brands such as Coca-Cola, Maersk, Mondi, Henkel, Orascom, and Cemex. It also has 15,000+ carrier partners.
In 2019, the Egyptian B2B trucking marketplace was selected to take part in the S19 batch of Silicon Valley-based accelerator YCombinator, securing US$150,000 in funding.
Omar Hagrass, Chief Executive Officer of Trella, said:
“This $42 million funding round is a huge endorsement of Trella’s capabilities, business model, and market opportunity. We have a strong diversity of investors and we thank all participants for their support. It is great to have Maersk, as a shipper customer that uses Trella, invested in our future growth. The MENAP freight market is a significant one and urgently needs the transparency, reliability, and efficiency that Trella and its technology platform provide. We are trusted and used by some of the world’s most recognizable brands, and look forward to working with our partners to scale across MENAP.”
Omar Almajdouie, Founding Partner of Raed VC, said:
“Our unwavering belief in the founders coupled with the booming freight sector made the opportunity to lead Trella’s investment round very exciting. Trella’s product innovation has enabled them to grow significantly in the past year despite the tough operating environment. This is a testament to their resilient business model and strong team. We are excited to support the team in their growth journey.”
Jeppe Hoier, Partner at Maersk Growth, said:
“We are currently experiencing a rapid development in trucking, as transportation of goods has become accessible to even the smallest companies due to new digital solutions. Trella’s platform is an excellent example of this democratization of the logistics sector. Trella is at the same time our first investment on the African continent founded by a team with significant experience from the start-up scene.”
Hagrass said Trella could go public in the next three to five years, likely outside Egypt.
