Digital freight platform Palletpal raises $200K Pre-Seed
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The UAE-based digital freight platform Palletpal has raised $200,000 in a Pre-Seed round from US-based Draper Associates.
Founded in 2021 by Adel Hamwi, Kareem Ghanam, Antonio Chidiac and Ali Nawaz, Palletpal is an asset-light platform that looks to streamline the heavy container shipping process. It enables companies across the Middle East to have better control of their shipment options whether they are moved through air, sea, or ocean while allowing them to live track the whole shipping process from purchase to delivery.
Major rounds by the likes of Lyve Global, Fenix, Trukkin, and Udrive put the UAE Transport & Logistics (T&L) ecosystem on the regional map as most recently recorded in our UAE Q3 2021 Venture Investment Report. A 163% YoY growth in funding drove the T&L sector’s rise in rank to become the fourth-most funded ecosystem in the UAE. The drive towards T&L innovations has been observed amongst different levels of the value chains, where startups like ONE MOTO TECHNOLOGIES LTD and most recently Palletpal raised impactful rounds in 2021 YTD, to create digital platforms that can open up shipping and delivery possibilities in the UAE.
The UAE-based T&L startup focuses on SMEs as a go-to-market, as they cover a wide independent network of 50 freight forwarders and carriers. By providing a Tech and Algorithm integrated platform, Palletpal aims to unlock the potential of SMEs and increase revenue margins by providing competitive pricing per shipment. The platform also helps in plugging existing gaps in data and knowledge sharing in logistics, much of which remains in the dark as the UAE-based team realized. In light of this market validating fundraise, Co-Founder Adel Hamwi highlighted “These businesses are moving a large volume of products, they're being out-priced by large players because the amount of volume that they provide is not enough for them to affect the margins on the forwarder side.”
Palletpal plans to channel its newly acquired funds towards growing its brand, expanding its team, and fine-tuning its minimal viable product (MVP). Hamwi elaborated Palletpal’s well-studied positioning "Freight is the gateway to logistics. The way we deliver our services is by creating a logistics network,” he concluded “We're giving the power back to the shipper to the customer. You come to us and fill out a request, and then we will find you the best deal and have bids coming in for you.”
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