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LoadMe’s genesis can be traced back to 2014, when Sebastian Stefan, one of the company’s three co-founders, was working as a sales manager for a major transportation company in the UAE. Sebastian was struggling to increase efficiency for his team, but he drew inspiration from other markets. To his surprise, the Middle East was the only place where load boards did not exist. For reference, load boards are online matching systems that allow shippers and freight brokers to post loads.
He brought it up with a college friend who happened to be in Dubai on holiday, Sebastian Morar, and the two decided to build the first online marketplace for freight exchange in the Middle East. Soon after, Claudia Pacurar joined the team and took over branding, design and drawing up the company’s first marketing guidelines.
In August 2014, LoadMe was selected out of 1,200 applicants to be part of TURN8 accelerator program, where it received invaluable support and guidance from expert business analysts, digital mentors and successful entrepreneurs on how, when and where to launch the product to the market. On January 1st, 2015, the site launched in beta and in mid-April the final platform launched with most of the features implemented.
The company is currently operating from Dubai and is based in The Cribb, a co-working space that hosts the TURN8 teams.
What is LoadMe
LoadMe.ae is the first and only online marketplace for transporters in the Middle East. The service combines the power of internet, GPS tracking and smartphone apps to seamlessly connect load owners with available trucks in their area.
Load boards help freight companies save millions of dollars all over the world, notably in Europe and America where most of the fares are booked online. “Our goal is to build a similar B2B network here in Middle East that gives a real time view of all the available trucks in your proximity, allows you to book and track your shipment as well,” according to Sebastian Stefan,the company’s CEO.
He adds, “in Middle East, the logistics industry has witnessed a double digit growth in the past few years and according to Frost & Sullivan, in 2015, our first year of activity, the logistics market in GCC is valued at $35 billion, out of which the land transportation accounts for $7 billion, this is the market that LoadMe is targeting directly.”
As of April 2015, there were 400 registered companies doing business through the platform with trips matched every day while the registered transporters could field a cumulated fleet of over 1000 trucks.
This whole process is made easy with the help of a user friendly web interface. Transporters post information about the availability of their trucks and other relevant data and freight owners can contact him directly. Likewise, shippers can post loads and available transporters can contact them as well. This scheme ensures that transporters increase capacity utilization and improve time management; they also increase the likelihood of finding loads for their return trip. This allows for “proper and efficient use of the truck in an environmental friendly way, no more empty trucks!”
Sebastian also points out that there are no direct competitors for LoadMe. “We are the first online marketplace for transporters in Middle East,” he explains. “Trucks are parked and just waiting for clients to come and book them from the designated truck parking like the ones in Awir or Jebel Ali. The GCC transports rely on close contacts and past experience to get business, this limits their services to certain routes or customers, the information about available truck or load is shared over the phone and travels only a link deep. We are offering a communication tool that brings benefits to all logistics professionals.”
LoadMe is subscription based service. There are 3 types of users: transporters, load owners and brokers. Each type can chose between one of four available packages. On average, the subscription fee is 100 dollars per month and is billed once every six months.
So far, the early adopters are medium and large companies from UAE, with more than 30 employees. These companies are striving to increase their efficiency and service quality.
“At this stage, our challenge is to reach the critical mass in GCC to generate the network effect and to build an expanded professional network that will use our system.”
The founders are specialized in logistics, software and marketing but Sebastian points out that raising funds was something new that they had to learn, “and the accelerator was very helpful in that matter.”
To finance its growth, LoadMe got a seed investment from TURN8 in August last year. This year, the company opened a new investment round for 350,000 USD in April and has raised the first 100,000 USD by the end of month.
Few words on the founders
LoadMe has 3 co-founders: a software engineer, a marketing specialist and a CEO who has extended knowledge and connections in the trucking industry in the UAE.
Sebastian Stefan is a graduate engineer in Mechatronics from Romania. He started his career in 2003 as a logistics coordinator for one of the dealerships of General Motors. In 2006 he incorporated his first company, an insurance broker, and over the next years he founded a number of other start-ups.
In 2011 he moved to Dubai and joined Tarwada Cargo Transport by Heavy Trucks LLC, a major transporter from UAE with a fleet of 150 trucks.
Sebastian Morar, the CTO, is also from Romania, 2006. He has over 10 years of experience managing online projects for the US market. Over the last 4 years, he successfully coordinated the development and maintenance of a website which has 8 million visitors monthly and is the core business for an internet media company that is listed on the US Stock Market with revenues of $150 million per year.
CMO Claudia Pacurar holds a Master's Degree in Marketing Policies and a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. She has 2 years of experience in developing and defining overall marketing strategy in the banking sector.
What’s next?
With the new investment, LoadMe is looking for rapid expansion in GCC and Jordan. To fulfill that mission, it has set a number of goals. The company is building a mobile app to support users on the move. It is also aiming to expand its operations to all the countries from Middle East, have 8,000 companies registered and active on the network at the end of 2015, establish partnerships with publishers and governmental institutions to promote the idea over their networks, and reduce the backhauling of empty trucks by 10% in GCC over the next 2 years. LoadMe is also looking to have the possibility to do transactions right on the platform by next year.
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