ON COURSE

Over six years, Gaurav Biswas, Founder and CEO of TruKKer, has raised over 203 million in funding for the truck aggregator and expanded it across the Middle East. Now it’s time to plan for an IPO.

- SAMAR KHOURI

Many entrepreneurs dream of their startups reaching a billion-dollar valuation, becoming unicorns, and ringing the Nasdaq bell. Moving aside a challenging year for venture-backed startups, TruKKer founder and CEO Gaurav Biswas says he's not one of them. "If we become a unicorn and if I ring the bell at Nasdaq, then yes, I would definitely love it. But no, I don't think like that," he says modestly.

However, the Saudi-headquartered freight network may become a public company in the next 24 to 36 months. "We are already very well-structured again because of the involvement of the kind of investors who came in earlier in our business," explains Biswas. "It gives us enough time right now to prepare the business from a public governance perspective, and that's what we'll be working on over the next few months." In February 2022, TruKKer secured $96 million in a Series B funding round, comprising a combination of equity and debt financing from investors, including Abu Dhabi's ADQ and Mubadala Investment Company. Seven months later, in September 2022, TruKKer raised $100 million in a pre-IPO Series C round led by Bahraini investment firm Investcorp, alongside new and existing investors, bringing its total funding to over $203 million. "In normal times, it is significant, and in current times I think it is super significant," says Biswas on getting that vote of confidence from investors amid current economic uncertainty. "If you see our revenue growth, it has always been quite measured in terms of what can be achieved. So, I think Investcorp to come in right now, for us as a private equity business very focused on an IPO, is the right time." Companies such as Uber and Airbnb have successfully built conglomerates on a global scale by making existing businesses-such as taxis and food delivery-mobile. TruKKer is among the Middle East's startups forging its own path in the market

by following the same concept for trucks. Today,