20 Disruptive Transportation Startups (2023)
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In a fast-paced world, swift, efficient, and safe mobility is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity.
Because of that, the global transportation industry has experienced massive growth over the years.
For instance, the trucking industry in the US alone was worth $732.3 billion back in 2020.
On top of that, the market size of the public transportation industry in the US is projected to be $78.4 billion this year.
Those figures barely scratch the surface of this massive sector, where new players enter every year. We’ve rounded up 20 fast-growing transportation startups that are changing the game in 2023.
1. Flock Freight
5-year search growth: 1400%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Solana Beach, CA
Funding: $399M (Series D)
What they do: Flock Freight is a freight-forwarding company that offers shared truckload shipping. Their services are designed to optimize routes, track shipments in real-time, and reduce the carbon footprint of their customers. Flock Freight claims that their technology reduces carbon emissions by 40% and that they've eliminated over 33 million pounds of carbon emissions so far.
2. FreightWaves
5-year search growth: 766%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: Chattanooga, TN
Funding: $92.4M (Private Equity)
What they do: FreightWaves is a platform where you can get news and real-time analytics on freight, transportation, and logistics. They mainly offer a SaaS solution called “SONAR,” designed to monitor, analyze, and provide forecasts on the freight market. More than 500 global enterprises currently use their platform.
3. Zypp
5-year search growth: 99X+
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2017
Location: Gurgaon, India
Funding: $50.9M (Series B)
What they do: Zypp is a last-mile delivery platform that provides on-demand logistics solutions for businesses in India. The platform offers a variety of services, including delivery of food, groceries, medicines, and other goods, as well as bike taxi and corporate shuttle services. Zypp's user-friendly app and reliable delivery network have made it a popular choice for businesses looking to improve their logistics and reach more customers in urban areas.
4. BusUp
5-year search growth: 1833%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Funding: $15.5M (Series A)
What they do: BusUp is a transportation technology company that provides a platform for bus sharing services. Their solution is aimed at corporate clients, allowing them to optimize their employee transportation by offering flexible, shared bus routes that can be customized to fit their needs. With features such as real-time tracking, automatic route optimization, and a user-friendly mobile app, BusUp is helping companies improve their transportation efficiency while reducing their carbon footprint.
5. Einride
5-year search growth: 100%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding: $652.3M (Debt Financing)
What they do: Einride is an electric automotive company that caters to logistics companies. They help shippers source battery-driven trucks for their shipments and specialize in providing self-driving, autonomous vehicles called “pods.” It’s estimated that Einride earns $25M in revenue on an annual basis.
6. Vimcar
5-year search growth: 25%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2014
Location: Berlin, Germany
Funding: $18.5M (Series B)
What they do: Vimcar offers a car logbook and a fleet management platform for businesses. Specifically, they offer fleet tracking, route monitoring, and mileage recording for companies. More than 100,000 vehicles are currently being managed by Vimcar’s platform.
7. Shippeo
5-year search growth: -10%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: Paris, France
Funding: $107.9M (Series C)
What they do: An end-to-end supply chain visibility platform, Shippeo delivers real-time information on deliveries. They do this through multimodal tracking and predictive visibility. According to their website, Shippeo is used to track over 28 million loads per year and recently saw annual growth of over 103% in October 2021.
8. FlavorCloud
5-year search growth: -100%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2017
Location: Seattle, WA
Funding: $10.1M (Series A)
What they do: FlavorCloud offers international shipment for eCommerce companies. Specifically, they offer cost calculation, tracking for shippers, and a cross-border logistics network. The startup says that they currently have 300+ carriers in their network.
9. Volta Trucks
5-year search growth: 1700%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2019
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding: $390.9M (Series C)
What they do: Volta Trucks is an electric vehicle startup that designs and manufactures fully electric commercial trucks for urban delivery. The company's vehicles are designed to be environmentally friendly and cost-effective, with a focus on safety and efficiency. Volta Trucks has received significant investment and support from the European Union and other organizations, and is poised to play a major role in the transition to electric vehicles in the commercial transportation industry.
10. Wunder Mobility
5-year search growth: 0%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Funding: $81.9M (Series B)
What they do: Wunder Mobility offers an operating system designed for urban mobility. They cater to mobility, free-floating ridesharing/car-sharing/bike-share, and internet-of-things companies. According to their website, their platform is connected to 50,000 vehicles.
11. Zoomo
5-year search growth: 833%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2017
Location: Sydney, Australia
Funding: $105.6M (Series B)
What they do: Zoomo is an e-bike subscription service that provides a flexible and cost-effective solution for urban transportation. The platform offers a variety of e-bike models for rent on a weekly or monthly basis, with features like free maintenance and repairs, theft protection, and insurance included. Zoomo's user-friendly app and reliable delivery and pick-up services have made it a popular choice for individuals and businesses looking to reduce their carbon footprint and improve their mobility in urban areas.
12. Trafi
5-year search growth: -72%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2013
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Funding: $14M (Series B)
What they do: Trafi is a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) company. Their platform works by integrating mobility services in a city into one place. The MaaS is currently being used in 7 cities across Europe, including Vilnius, Berlin, and Zurich.
13. NEXT Trucking
5-year search growth: 16%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2015
Location: El Segundo, CA
Funding: $124.1M (Series C)
What they do: NEXT Trucking is a freight forwarding platform designed to connect shippers with carriers and independent owner operators. Their platform works by factoring in the preferred loads specified by the truck drivers in their network. NEXT Trucking claims that they have helped move over $50 billion in cargo so far.
14. VanMoof
5-year search growth: 210%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2008
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Funding: $189.1M (Series C)
What they do: VanMoof is a manufacturer of electronic bikes. They also offer a mobile app that connects to their bikes and allows users to set alarms, specify preferences, and report their bikes as stolen. According to their website, VanMoof’s sales grew by 200% in 2020.
15. Voi Technology
5-year search growth: 1700%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2018
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding: $515.6M (Secondary Market)
What they do: A micro-mobility and greentech company, Voi Technology offers electric scooters across Europe. Commuters can use their mobile app to locate nearby Voi scooters and ride them to get around town. According to their website, more than 4 million people currently use Voi for their daily commutes. Additionally, Voi recently declared that they plan to be climate positive by 2030.
16. Virtuo
5-year search growth: 78%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Paris, France
Funding: $115.2M (Debt Financing)
What they do: Virtuo is a car rental company that offers conventional and electric vehicles to both businesses and individuals. The entire process is carried out online through their mobile app. More than 3,000 companies currently use Virtuo’s business solutions.
17. Rapido
5-year search growth: 1950%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2015
Location: Bangalore, India
Funding: $310.4M (Series D)
What they do: Rapido is an Indian ride-hailing platform that provides a variety of transportation services, including bike taxis and auto-rickshaws. The platform offers a user-friendly app for booking rides and provides competitive pricing, as well as features for tracking rides, sharing trip details, and rating drivers. Rapido has become a popular choice for commuters in urban areas and has expanded to over 100 cities in India.
18. The Boring Company
5-year search growth: -22%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2016
Location: Pflugerville, TX
Funding: $913M (Series C)
What they do: The Boring Company offers traffic-congestion solutions in the form of city-wide tunnels. They are using these tunnels to build intra-city transit systems called “Loops.” So far, The Boring Company has built its Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) loop, in addition to their R&D tunnel and Hyperloop test track.
19. Maven Machines
5-year search growth: 600%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2014
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Funding: $10.9M (Series A)
What they do: A software company, Maven Machines offers a cloud-based platform for fleet and dispatch management. The software offers features like real-time visibility of vehicles, workflow management, and reporting. Maven Machines says that 300+ fleets are currently using their platform.
20. Unu
5-year search growth: -54%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2013
Location: Berlin, Germany
Funding: $43.3M (Series Unknown)
What they do: Unu is a manufacturer of an electric scooter called “unu.” Their scooter is battery-powered, can run for up to 100 kilometers (a little over 62 miles) per charge, and connects with a mobile app. In 2017, the company founders made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe: Industry list.
conclusion
That wraps up our list of skyrocketing transportation startups worth following in 2023.
From transportation companies focused on transforming urban mobility to tech companies offering freight forwarding solutions to enterprises, it’s safe to say that the transportation sector is quite vast and diverse.
With new technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence penetrating this industry, the future of transportation looks exciting.