The Saudi-Arabia-based logistics startup, Equiptal, announced it raised a US$1 million pre-seed round from Plug and Play Middle East and a group of angel investors.
The startup is offering a solution that helps the suppliers rent out their equipment, and expand their market share fast and efficiently. The marketplace provides heavy equipment, where contractors can connect directly with suppliers.
On the supplier side, the SaaS solution also helps them track their equipment’s performance on the ground and intervene when the equipment is idle.
According to the startup founder Ali Merie, the funds will be used to grow the startup’s headcount and increase its footprint in its home market.
“Being a contractor myself, I knew the pain points on the supplier and contractor sides,” he said. “[We] mainly focused on solving the contractor’s issues of the sourcing part.
“For the time being, the Gega projects have very short timelines and rigorous construction requirements, so contractors faced a lot of issues trying to source their machinery for short and long-term rentals, which is always a challenge for the procurement departments.”
The startup also incorporates a fleet management solution backed by telematics technology, which helps contractors make the best use of the equipment on the ground.
The challenge now, according to Merie, is that contractors don’t have time to test out our new technologies.
The startup has onboarded 700 suppliers, serving around 100 contractors since its launch last year.
The startup has operations across development projects in Saudi Arabia, particularly those taking place across the Red Sea coast, including Neom City, with more coming up in its pipeline. For Equiptal, the target market is US $3 trillion, representing the value of projects slated for execution within the next three to five years.
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