In a time when small business owners were greatly impacted by the pandemic, Denver truck-sharing startup Fluid Truck has stepped up.
The company’s peer-to-peer truck-sharing platform saw huge interest in the last year, with Fluid reporting sixfold revenue growth in 2020 and expansion into nine new markets.
Now, the company is bringing on a large investment to help spread its product nationally and internationally.
Fluid Truck today announced a $63 million Series A funding round led by Bison Capital, with participation from Ingka Investments, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas and others. The company will use the new funding to further build out its platform, scale the engineering and operations teams, and accelerate launching in dozens of new markets.
Fluid’s software allows businesses to manage a fleet without the overhead of owning vehicles. The truck-sharing platform offers 24/7 mobile access to a variety of commercial trucks and vans available for pickup in minutes.
During Covid-19, founder and CEO James Eberhard said Fluid’s flexibility and availability were key to helping companies manage the unpredictable flow of business.
“It’s been pretty transformational for small and mid-sized business to focus on what’s important,” Eberhard said. “They do not have to worry about buying, managing and servicing a fleet. They can use the vehicle when they need it and get the job done for them and their customers.”
While the company had to scale back its aggressive growth plans a bit during the pandemic, Fluid is still planning on expanding quickly following this round.
“Today we sit across almost 25 markets in the U.S. and our game plan is to go out there and build a national footprint this year,” Eberhard said.
The company has about 150 employees and expects that number to grow by about 200 by the end of 2021.
This round comes after Fluid secured an electric vehicle partnership with Loveland-based Lightning Systems, which designs and installs zero-emission, electric powertrains in fleet vehicles.
Fluid ordered 600 electric, modified vehicles from the company with plans to have electrified trucks and van available in several of its markets in 2021.
This push to electric was one reason Ingka Investments, which is part of Ingka Group, the main IKEA retailer, took part in the round.
”We are delighted with this investment in Fluid Truck as this partnership is closely aligned with our zero-emission customer delivery ambitions,” said Krister Mattsson, managing director of Ingka Investments, in a statement. “Fluid Truck has an increasingly electrified delivery fleet across the U.S so this is another step in enabling IKEA Retail to provide last-mile delivery services to our customers, continue to improve on our customer promise, while also reducing our environmental footprint. We are impressed with the company’s team, innovative mindset, revenue traction to date and their continued growth.”
