Haarlem, the Netherlands-based ROM InWest, a regional development agency in North Holland, announced on Wednesday that it led a €2.7M investment round in Amsterdam-based Quicargo, an online platform that connects empty trucks to any business that needs transportation in real-time.
Founded in October, 2021, ROM InWest invested €1.15M, while the rest of the amount came from Quicargo’s current shareholders. ROM InWest aims to stimulate an innovative and strong entrepreneurial environment within North Holland.
Janet Nieboer, CEO of ROM InWest, says, “We, the ROM InWest, are happy that we can assist Quicargo with this investment. Besides the investment, we also help Quicargo by including them in our broad network of business experts. The company is innovative, embodies entrepreneurial ability, and its sustainable goals fit the ambitions of the ROM InWest to accelerate innovation and energy transition in North Holland.”
Capital utilisation
Quicargo says the proceeds from this round will accelerate its project to launch the first zero-emission freight network in the world.
The funds will also help develop a new control tower software, ‘QC Hub’. The software enables SMEs to control and monitor their logistics activities in a simple, sustainable, and transparent way.
Avishai Trabelsi, CEO at Quicargo, says, “Due to recent developments such as the pandemic, Brexit, the war in Ukraine, rising fuel prices, increasing shipping costs, and inflation, businesses are becoming more aware of the importance of their supply chain, and in particular their transport. Large corporations allocate a lot of resources to solve supply chain issues, while most SMEs have neither the resources nor the knowledge to do so.”
“I believe that QC Hub can be a game-changer for these organisations, as we make use of the experience gained and as we are implementing all the technology we have developed during recent years. QC Hub enables businesses to manage all their logistics providers in one place, and thus not only their Quicargo shipping services,” adds Trabelsi.
The increasing demand for sustainable shipping solutions is expected to lead Quicargo to further growth – not only in the Netherlands but also in the rest of Europe. To enable this growth, Quicargo will hire more employees and set up new collaborations with local and regional partners.
Order part and full truck loads online
Founded in 2015 by Avishai Trabelsi and Roni Liberman, Quicargo aims to make transport more efficient, transparent, and sustainable.
Trucks usually drive at full capacity to their destination but return empty or partially empty, resulting in inefficiencies and unnecessary CO2 emissions.
To solve this issue and bridge the gap between supply and demand, Quicargo has created a digital platform that connects shippers and carriers, providing affordable shipping solutions and making transportation sustainable with quantifiable CO2 reductions.
Connecting these two parties also reduces the number of polluting trucks and increases the number of companies that contribute to the climate.
CEO Avishai Trabelsi says, “Our platform retrieves thousands of different data points and finds the best match between shipper and carrier. This greatly helps to improve optimising the loading capacity of trucks across Europe, saving CO2 emissions and costs, and reducing the pressure on the workforce. We also support the complete operational flows between shippers and carriers, so as to provide both parties with peace of mind.”
‘Green ride’
Trucks in Europe are responsible for 22 per cent of road traffic emissions. The European Commission expects that transport by trucks will increase by 50 per cent between 2010 and 2050.
Trabelsi says, “By filling empty trucks, we already save tons of emissions. Yet, we believe that we can even do better by acting quickly. That is why we are now working on launching the first zero-emissions freight network in the world.”
With this new initiative, companies can choose emission-free transport in a fully automated and transparent way. First, the company will see its emission footprint, then it will be able to opt for ‘green ride’. The system will plan and attribute the most sustainable route to the shipment, and if available, will match it with an electric truck.
Though there are many electric vans already in use in city logistics today, there are not yet many electric trucks active in Quicargo’s domain, ‘the middle mile’. Quicargo looks to lay the foundation for future developments in electric transport.
According to the RVO (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland), the ambition is for at least a thousand trucks to drive emission-free in the Netherlands by 2025. Until then, the remaining emissions will be offset with certified local projects.
Over 400 partner carriers
To get the project started, Quicargo has already counted on its large network of more than 400 partner carriers.
The company executed a pilot version of the project to analyse how much value active customers would attribute to making their supply chains more sustainable. In partnership with CityHub (mainly active in electric city logistics), the experiment revealed widespread interest, but not at any price. Businesses are however prepared to make concessions in terms of delivery times and the division of goods between multiple trucks.
The goal is to make 30 per cent of all national shipments via Quicargo emission-free in 2025. Quicargo says this is a real step towards achieving European climate goals.
01
Not solo: How Xolo aims to help Dutch solopreneurs with its comprehensive business management platform