Ghanaian startup, Truckrtech emerges winner of TechCircle’s 2019 Pitch2Win competition
Truckr(tech), the Uber for trucks wins the 2019 edition of Pitch2win, organised by TechCircle in partnership with Freakout holdings.
Founded in 2018 by Caryl Joshua Akonor, Truckrtech gives real-time visibility, cargo-in-transit insurance and proper communication channels to shippers and drivers.
They piloted their solution in the first-third of the year. Between May and June, they raked in $12,000 (equivalent of ₦3.7 m; GH¢ 64,000). Their win entitles them to a cash prize of ₦1 m ($2,800; GH¢ 15,000) which they intend to plough-back into the business.
We did our pilot between January and April, and started full operations in May 2019. Between May and June, we've done $12,000 in revenue. We can look to 15% month-on-month (MoM) revenue increase with this funding from Pitch2Win.
At the estimated MoM growth rate of 15%, revenues can be expected to hover around $14,000 by July.
True to our earlier report, the panel of judges for the competition were Dr. Ola Brown, Dr. Femi Kuti, Yuzuru Honda, Barbara Iyayi, and Hiro Mashita.
Oo Nwoye—Founder, TechCircle—believes the event was a success, claiming that the foreign investors "got what they came for". Also, he congratulated the winning startup for their "self-belief".
We had investors fly in from Japan, scouting for young emerging businesses to help scale and its amazing they got what they came for. I am particularly happy for the winning startup. The founder took a bold step to fly in from Ghana, and thankfully, his self-belief brought a positive outcome.
Beyond the grand prize, Mr Nwoye states that the event gave all participants an opportunity to tell their own stories to a pool of investors. And that for him is "satisfactory".
On the other hand, Yuzuru Honda—CEO, Freakout Holdings—equally noted that the event was "great"and he'll be looking to do more.
This is a great event and it’s amazing to be part of it. This is my first time in Nigeria and I am very excited about the energy of young startups in this space. We definitely look to doing more.
Pitch2Win by TechCircle first held in 2016 and there are plans to do an even bigger one in the coming years. The runners-up for this year 2019 were Asusu—a SaaS startup digitising the financial activities of low-income and daily earners, and Prodigy—a school management software based in Nigeria.
Read about the other Pitch2Win finalists here.
Cover photo, L-R: Dr. Ola Brown—Flying Doctors, Yuzuru Honda—FreakOut, Taro Fukuyama—M&S Partners, Caryl Joshua Akonor—Truckr and Winner of PITCH2WIN, Hiro Mashita—M&S Partners, Oo Nwoye—TechCircle, Femi Kuti—RelianceHMO, and Barbara Iyayi—Element Inc.