The trucking industry might undergo a permanent transformation with artificial intelligence (AI) and driverless vehicles, but certain companies like Einride and Tevva are employing revolutionary technology to enhance vehicle safety and optimise fleet efficiency.
At the same time, Solvento, the fintech company that develops payment and credit infrastructure for Latin America’s trucking sector, announced today that it has closed a $50M debt facility from Lendable and raised an oversubscribed $3.5M seed extension led by Quona Capital, with participation from Dynamo Ventures, Ironspring Ventures, Proeza Ventures, and Zenda VC.
AI-powered payments
The news comes with the launch of Solvento Audita, an AI-powered software automating the end-to-end accounts payable process for the on-the-road freight industry. Solvento is building the payment and credit infrastructure for the LatAm trucking sector, benefiting all parties along the supply chain. Solvento automates payments, finances invoices, and solves the liquidity needs of carriers, allowing them to focus on their operations and growth. The new lending facility enables shippers and brokers to offer quick pay, and injects working capital into the supply chain for the benefit of carriers and truckers alike. As a result, it will help carriers pay their drivers faster, addressing the concerning deficit in driver capacity.
“At Lendable, we believe in the power of technology and finance to create a more economically just and environmentally sustainable world,” says Iñaki Garcia, Head of LatAm Investments at Lendable. “Solvento’s take on the transportation industry is creating a line of capital and credit infrastructure that the region/industry doesn’t see often. We’re proud to help facilitate this move into a more inclusive and diverse financial state.”
“Our goal at Quona Capital has always been to help founders build a more financially inclusive world,” says Rafa de la Guia, Partner at Quona Capital. “The trucking industry in Mexico, and in the Latin American region as a whole, is massively underserved when it comes to both traditional financial institutions and generalist fintechs – creating great opportunities for specialized companies like Solvento. We are seeing tremendous demand for credit, payment, and software products in the space, and Solvento has 20x growth over the past couple of years. We are excited to double down on the team and this new funding gives Solvento enough firepower to execute on its ambitious medium-term growth plans.”
“The trucking industry is at the heart of the Latin American economy, yet we have not treated it as such or given it the resources necessary for success,” says Jaime Tabachnik, Co-Founder & CEO of Solvento.“We are helping shippers, third-party logistics companies and carriers to save huge amounts of time and money by automating the most complex and time-consuming parts of their business, while contributing to higher levels of financial inclusion. 53% of customers report an increase in quality of life, while 29% report an increase in their money earned since using our solution. Our technology will continue to unlock the flow of money in the logistics industry as we continue building our vision to become the de facto payment platform for truckers in Mexico and Cross Border trucking.”
Solvento Audita uses APIs to integrate into any existing software, able to read and detect any type of document and validate – a process that is traditionally done manually even by the largest of shippers and brokers. Specifically, Solvento Audita enables companies that hire truckers to collect digitized PODs associated with each trip a trucker makes, extract information, and validate that it was concluded and invoiced correctly so it gets paid. Plus, it matches the POD against the invoice and rate to ensure that clients only pay what was agreed on, even validating the very complex and unstandardized accessorial charges (maneuvers, overnight stays, backhauls etc.).
Some companies already seeing the effects of Solvento Audita include one of the most important shippers in the world—Nestlé— as well as LatAm’s largest last-mile delivery provider, 99 minutos.
“Solvento’s auditing software has seen remarkable efficiency gains, reducing a 15-day manual process to just a few hours, thanks to AI-powered automation,” says Alexis Patjane, CEO at 99 minutos. “This solution has not only improved our financial operations but also further optimized our accounts payable processes, enhanced fraud detection and risk management, while freeing up our valuable resources for strategic tasks.”
The funding will go towards the further development of Solvento’s product and expansion in commercial efforts to meet the growing needs of the $200 billion LatAm trucking market.
Solvento is a Mexican fintech founded in 2021 that offers technological and financial solutions to companies in the trucking sector that allows them to automate and speed up their collections and payments. Solvento has more than 100 clients, including major players in the logistics and trucking sector, such as 99minutos, Packengers, Onest Logistics, CLG Transportes, Condumex, Transportes EASO, Liftit, Logtec and GAIA, among others.
