Participated · Series C · Feb 2022

Volta Trucks is closing a Series C extension as it prepares to begin production and customer deliveries in early 2023. The company is raising an approximate €60 million extension to the C round; interest from potential customers, partners and investors is described as strong ahead of product start. In spring the company received a larger financing of about €240 million. The C-extension values Volta Trucks at a €525 million pre-money valuation, roughly 20% higher than the post-money valuation after the spring round. Existing owners are participating in the extension; one investor who joined in the spring has more than doubled its investment and will take a large portion of the extension. Byggmästare Anders J Ahlström Holding AB is committing about €6.5 million to the extension. The company disclosed the information on 21 October 2022. Volta Trucks develops the Volta Zero, a purpose-built all-electric commercial freight vehicle designed for urban distribution with enhanced visibility and lower emissions. The first model is a 16-tonne truck with a 150–200 km electric range and 220-degree visibility from a centrally seated driver. Volta plans 7.5- and 12-tonne derivatives and an eventual 18-tonne model. Its go-to-market includes both truck sales and a trucking-as-a-service offering, and it has a confirmed pre-order book exceeding €1.2 billion for more than 5,000 vehicles. The company is investing the new funding into engineering, prototype verification, production operations and pilots in London and Paris. Production is planned at a facility in Austria with targets of 5,000 vehicles in 2023, 14,000 in 2024 and up to 27,000 in 2025. The Series C values the company at just over $490 million and the company has raised over $325 million to date. Volta Trucks develops electric trucks aimed at city and last-mile logistics, positioning its vehicles to eliminate CO2 emissions and address other logistics-sector challenges. The company has recruited industrial partners including Proterra (its battery supplier) and Agility (a large global logistics firm). Volta has attracted investor interest and completed a recent oversubscribed equity raising, signaling continued external support for its product and commercial plan. The company’s activities and partnerships were presented as progress by existing investors, though management and investors note the business carries commercial and financial risks. Public company disclosures about the financing were released on 16 September 2021.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2022

Retailo, founded in 2020 by Talha Ansari, Wahaj Ahmed, and Mohammad Nowkhaiz, operates a plug-and-play B2B digital distribution platform serving thousands of retail partners and restaurants in Saudi Arabia. The company offers next-day delivery on a catalogue of 5,000 stock-keeping units and hosts 200+ leading local, regional and global brand partners. Retailo positions its platform as a way for suppliers to distribute products across the Kingdom and leverage the company’s distribution network and customer base. The business has announced strategic collaborations, including a technology distribution partnership with South Korea’s Dtonic to deploy AI-powered retail technology. Retailo says it will use new funding to grow its supplier network, enlarge its customer base, expand new verticals and deepen its presence within Saudi Arabia. Investors and partners cite the company’s tech capabilities and "profitable growth" as drivers for continued support as Retailo pursues further expansion under Saudi Vision 2030 initiatives. Retailo operates a mobile B2B marketplace that lets small businesses order from a catalogue of over 5,000 SKUs with deliveries in less than 24 hours. The platform offers buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services and provides sellers with data analytics to evaluate sales performance and consumption trends. Retailo works directly with hundreds of local, regional and global brands and manages end-to-end logistics including efficient warehousing operations and smart fleet management. The company has begun offering sellers cross-border distribution across KSA, UAE and Pakistan to provide a one-stop shop. Founded in July 2020 and based in Riyadh, Retailo has raised $36M in Series A equity and venture debt and a total of $45M in under 1.5 years of operations. It plans to use the funds to expand into new geographies, verticals and products. Retailo was launched in early 2020 by former Careem executives Talha Ansari, Muhammad Nowkhaiz, and Wahaj Ahmed to address fragmented retail supply chains in the Middle East and South Asia. The company operates an online B2B marketplace that connects small retailers with suppliers, provides last-mile delivery, and is piloting credit for merchants. Its model aims to remove transportation and cash constraints so retailers can restock more frequently and scale operations. Retailo emphasizes three core pillars: marketplace access for suppliers via smartphones, logistics (last-mile delivery), and credit deployment, with plans to integrate backward into the supply chain by working directly with farmers. The startup has used early external funding to expand operations in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and plans further regional launches. Financially, Retailo raised a $2.3M pre-seed in October and closed a $6.7M seed round in May to support its expansion and product development. Retailo is described in the article as a Pakistani B2B platform. The company raised $2.3 million in a pre-seed funding round. The pre-seed round was led by Shorooq Partners. The article does not disclose revenue, user counts, product specifics, or future plans. No past rounds or additional investors were named in the coverage. The report positions the raise as early-stage funding for the company.

Participated · Series C · Nov 2017

CargoX operates a smart trucking marketplace in Brazil that connects shippers with drivers who have unused truck capacity, aiming to increase driver earnings and reduce shipping costs. The company integrates GPS devices to provide precise tracking and to optimize shipments and routes. CargoX is gathering data and plans to focus next year on using that data and machine learning to enable features like real-time pricing and better utilization. The startup launched in March 2016 and says its current revenue run rate places it among the top 25 trucking companies in Brazil. It has signed Unilever as a partner. Leadership emphasizes concentrating on winning the Brazilian market rather than pursuing immediate international expansion. CargoX operates a digital freight marketplace that matches shippers with truckers who have excess capacity, aiming to reduce empty miles and increase trucker revenue. The company describes itself as a transportation company with no assets, owning the network rather than the trucks. CargoX says it has a network of 150,000 trucks and cites that trucks in Brazil run empty about 40% of the time, with an estimated national excess of 300,000–350,000 vehicles. CEO Federico Vega has likened the model to Airbnb and emphasizes flexibility and trust by making deals with CargoX rather than individual drivers. Investors and company leadership see international expansion potential and applicability even if trucking becomes autonomous, since autonomous trucks will require data. Financially, the company has raised new capital and now reports a total of $14 million in funding.