Cologne-based Colonia Technologies bags €6M to become ‘AirBnB of road logistics’

Cologne, Germany-based Colonia Technologies, a road logistics startup, announced on Monday that it has raised €6M in a Seed round of funding led by Octopus Ventures. 

Plug and Play, vent.io (a venture capital arm of Deutsche Leasing AG), MobilityFund, and Hoyer, as well as numerous angel investors, including the founders of Flixbus, Grover, and Seven Senders, also participated in the round. 

Existing investor Atlantic Labs also added further capital to the current round. 

“We are delighted that we have again attracted renowned investors. The financing round enables us to further advance our business model and enable our companies with their commercial vehicle fleet to be more competitive, but also more sustainable,” said Jakob Sadoun, co-founder of Colonia.

Colonia Technologies says it intends to utilise the investment to enhance its platform’s features. 

The company also launched a new feature that offers users additional payment security. 

Through an external financing partner, lessors are assured of rental payments reaching them safely and on time.

Logistics forms the core of the European economy, with an estimated 4.6M trucks and trailers transporting 76 per cent of all goods.

However, inconsistent access to these vehicles presents a bottleneck, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grappling with fluctuating orders and driver shortages. 

Here’s where Colonia Technologies aims to solve the problem through its B2B sharing model.

Colonia Technologies: AirBnB of road logistics

Founded by Jakob Sadoun and Kaspar Filipp in May 2021, Colonia Technologies enables logistics companies to share vehicles via a secure marketplace equipped with user-friendly fleet management software to operate fleets more effectively.

The German company’s customers include transport and logistics companies of all sizes from various industries. These companies have their own commercial vehicle fleet and flexible commercial vehicle requirements.

The investor

Octopus Ventures is one of the most active venture capital investors in the UK and Europe. 

It specialises across six sectors: B2B software, climate tech, consumer tech, deep tech, fintech, and health. It has backed more than 180 businesses across the UK and Europe, including Zoopla, WaveOptics, Cazoo, and Depop. 

Octopus Ventures manages £1.9B for retail and institutional investors and invests £200M each year.

Nick Sando, Principal at Octopus Ventures, says, “Access to trucks and trailers is a critical bottleneck in international logistics, while demand unpredictability creates huge challenges for small businesses that operate commercial logistics fleets. Colonia’s not only solving the problem of dormant trucks and trailers but enabling fleet operators to win business across Europe. It’s creating a step change in European logistics.”