Company name: Qualle
Amount raised: $1.5 million
What they do: Founded in 2022, Qualle’s logistics software enables shipping companies to work with truckers to reuse import shipping containers for exports, CEO Tyler Sellers said. Typically, if a trucker picks up a container in Savannah and unloads its goods in Atlanta, the truck would then return to Savannah with an empty container. Qualle’s software allows the truck to connect with an exporter in Atlanta to refill the container with goods ready to be shipped from Savannah. Sellers said the process, called a “street turn,” makes extra money for the truckers while reducing carbon emissions.
The company is currently working with trucking companies and steamship lines in ports in California, New York, New Jersey, Georgia and Texas.
What the funds will be used for: The raise will be used to increase the number of Quallle’s trucking partners, while developing new software for its platform.
Quotable: “[Street turns] are something the [U.S.] is not very good at. We are probably one of the worst countries in the world at it. We reuse our containers about 2% of the time,” Sellers said. “We built this platform where it allows our truckers to come on our platform and with the click of a button request the reuse of these containers. … It’s a really big efficiency upgrade.”
