SmartHop Proud to Announce $12M in Series A Funding

The past year was an especially challenging one for small and independent truckers, an essential part of the country’s economy who already were facing significant difficulties in competing against large carriers and high rates. We created SmartHop to help these businesses thrive, and the need for our platform is stronger than ever today.

‍Today we’re proud to announce we secured $12M in funding in a Series A financing round, led by Union Square Ventures (USV) with participation from RyderVenture — a new corporate venture fund from Ryder System. They join additional investors including Equal Ventures, Greycroft, Techstars, LOVC, The Fund, Jett McCandless, Andrew Leto, Alex Yeager and our fantastic angel investors. This enables us to further our mission of helping drivers Truck Smarter, Not Harder. We’re particularly pleased by this growth, as our Series A funding investment comes less than a year after our seed round.

‍It’s great news for us, and it’s great news for you because with this capital we will continue to develop our full-service business-in-a-box platform. This means drivers like you and the small companies your peers work for can make smarter load booking decisions that boost revenues and get more control of the business.

‍Our customers have seen top-line increases of at least 8% relative to what they could find on the market and an increase in take-home pay, getting to  48% as a result of a more competitive cost structure. We have already booked over six thousand loads in less than a year, resulting in more than $30M annual run rate in customer GMV.

‍Our AI-powered solution helps you compete with the big carriers with better capabilities. We reduce operational costs, streamline load booking, and provide access to the vast broker networks previously only available to large carriers. The SmartHop load booking network helps you navigate the spot market to pick the best loads from the largest pool, reduce dead hauls based on proximity and availability of load booking opportunities, and stay on top of fluctuations in the spot/contract market. Our full-service trucking technology connects you with everything you need to truck smarter and more profitably, including:

• Freight Dispatch and Load Booking: SmartHop’s  technology-assisted dispatch tool helps plan better routes that yield more profit and higher-paying loads. Copilot’s intelligence also suggests options for booking the next load so truckers can plan their next move.
• Back Office Support: SmartHop’s end-to-end 24/7 support gives owner-operators and small carriers the ability to operate like larger fleets.
• Fuel: SmartHop negotiates with top fuel providers to obtain an average discount of 8% on fuel prices, the single largest cost item of their operation.
• Load Factoring: SmartHop’s factoring program gives truckers faster access to their money and at rates 1-2% below market.

We are so thankful to all our existing customers for supporting us in our journey so far, investors who believe in our mission, and brokers who are excited to change the industry with us. We look forward to continuing to grow our business by empowering small carriers’ businesses and recognizing them for the work they do. Great things are coming!

‍Cheers to an exciting year ahead,

Guillermo