AtoB, the first FinTech platform for America’s trucking industry raises $155m

By Leandra Monteiro

AtoB, the first FinTech payments platform to modernise the $790 billion trucking industry’s broken financial system, announced it has raised $155 million in Series B funding.

The funding is a combination of equity to scale its services over the next 12 months, and debt and CAC financing to provide working capital to small fleet businesses. This latest investment brings AtoB’s total debt and equity raise to $230 million.

AtoB’s Series B was led by Elad Gil and General Catalyst with participation from existing investors Collaborative Fund, Contrary Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, and Leadout Capital. Prior rounds were led by General Catalyst and Roy Bahat of Bloomberg Beta. AtoB’s individual and institutional backers include industry stalwarts Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and Alphabet executive chairman; Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures; AngelList Founder Naval Ravikant; DoorDash founders Tony Xu and Stanley Tang; Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong; Instacart CEO Fidji Simo; Jack and Max Altman of Altman Capital; and Long Journey Ventures.

AtoB’s payments platform provides a suite of products for the fleet community for the first time, including no-fee fleet cards; instant direct-deposit payroll; and access to bank accounts and savings tools.

“AtoB is working to improve the lives of the operators and drivers who power the global economy. For too long they’ve been left behind, without the basic financial services that most businesses take for granted. Our Series B will support new product development, working capital for small businesses, and international expansion, so we can bring our services to more operators and drivers,” said CEO and co-founder, Vignan Velivela.

America’s fleet financial system is broken. Truck drivers and fleet owners rely on under-regulated and exploitative fuel cards, which come with limited networks and prohibitively expensive fees; lack access to low-cost capital for maintenance; and are paid through outdated legacy systems, such as hard copy checks that often cannot be deposited while drivers are on the road. The majority of these businesses are small: 92% of all trucking businesses operate 6 or fewer trucks; 97% operate fewer than 20 trucks.

AtoB’s unique fuel analytics system flags fuel theft and opportunities to increase fuel efficiency, two of the biggest challenges facing the industry, while also helping fleets reduce their emissions and support transition to cleaner fuels and electric vehicles.

“AtoB is operating in a deceivingly large market in a space that needs innovation. Creating a modern logistics and payment stack that is unique to the transportation industry is an important problem to solve in improving the global supply chain,” said Hemant Taneja, Managing Partner at General Catalyst. “Vignan Velivela, Harshita Arora, Tushar Misra and team think deeply about serving truck drivers and fleet owners well and in doing so they are building an enduring fintech company that empowers the transportation workforce and businesses that rely on them.”

“In industry after industry, enormous companies still provide customers with awful service—and AtoB is out to change that for truckers. As one of the most common occupations in the U.S., truckers deserve better. It’s difficult to innovate on complex, established systems, and the rewards for the startups that succeed are massive,” said Roy Bahat, head of Bloomberg Beta.

“We partnered with AtoB because it’s clear fleet owners and operators have been underserved for a long time, and AtoB’s leadership is passionate about fixing that pain point,” said Ross Fubini of XYZ Venture Capital. “AtoB has grown their operations in a smart and intentional way, positioning them to support fleet businesses in the U.S. and beyond.”