SmartHop offers a smart dispatch service that recommends loads to truck drivers to optimize profits and travel time based on truck capacity, routes and other details. The company uses AI to remove administrative headaches for interstate truckers and to surface better-paying opportunities. With fresh capital SmartHop plans to focus more on fintech products, including a fuel card program that offers fuel discounts and perks and expanded insurance offerings. SmartHop says its network of brokers, freight marketplaces and partners can give smaller companies access to better fuel rates. The company will also use the funds to scale its platform and grow its team. Its core market is small truckers and majority owner-operators who face rising fuel and insurance costs. SmartHop offers an AI-driven platform that recommends and can autonomously book freight to help owner-operators and small trucking companies maximize profitability and reduce administrative work. The app learns driver preferences (route aversions, capacity, etc.) to suggest optimized loads and booking strategies. SmartHop charges a transaction fee of 3% of the gross sale, aligning its incentives with drivers. The company plans to use funding to accelerate product development and build embedded financial products, including invoice factoring (selling 45-day invoices for payment within 24 hours) and data-driven underwriting. Founder Guillermo Garcia is a former truck driver who scaled his prior trucking business to 500 employees; SmartHop was part of the 2019 New York City Techstars cohort. The company currently has 50 full-time employees, 100 trucks using the product, and reports average truck gross revenue of $10K–$15K per month. SmartHop offers an all-in-one, tech-enabled dispatch platform designed as a trucker’s “copilot,” providing easy load booking, end-to-end back-office support, load suggestions based on location/date/hours of service/preferred trip type, and performance reports with improvement strategies. The product targets small carriers and owner-operators, aiming to create a nationwide network of reliable carriers and connect truckers with guaranteed above-market rates per mile. The company emphasizes simplicity for small fleets (over 90% of U.S. trucking companies operate with fewer than six trucks) so they can improve efficiency without enterprise-level systems. SmartHop has recruited industry veterans and strategic angels to support scaling and product development. Financially, SmartHop announced a $4.5 million Seed raise to help build out offerings and expand its network.

Total raised

$47M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Apr 2022