South African technology firm GoMetro has raised £9 million (~$11.4 million) in a Series A funding round.
Zenobē Energy, an investor known for supporting electric transportation initiatives, including the financing and operation of electric buses, led the round for GoMetro. Notably, Zenobē Energy recently secured a substantial $750 million investment from KKR, for fleet electrification financing.
Zenobē Energy engages in large-scale battery projects for wind farms, and with the U.K.’s National Grid among its customers, sees the importance of robust data quality in driving financing decisions. This perspective motivated Zenobē Energy’s lead investment in GoMetro, a company specializing in logistics optimization software.
GoMetro’s flagship product, Bridge, is a platform that consolidates vehicle data, regardless of make or model, into a unified system. This technology is particularly crucial for fleet managers who can now access and analyze data without being constrained by disparate telematics systems associated with different original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Founder and CEO Justin Coetzee, a civil engineer with a background in constructing transportation networks, launched GoMetro to address the inadequacy of available data in South Africa. The company’s journey began in 2014 with the creation of a chatbot that informed people about train arrival times, eventually evolving into a comprehensive SaaS fleet management technology platform.
GoMetro’s strategic move into the electric vehicle (EV) category has significantly contributed to its business growth. The company currently boasts a network of over 15,000 vehicles, including 1,000 electric vehicles, and has partnerships with 60 trucking and logistics companies. Recognizing the shift to EVs across the transportation sector, Coetzee aims to pioneer OEM-agnostic electric vehicle telematics, managing electric buses and trucks more effectively.
Beyond its focus on EVs, what sets GoMetro apart is its ability to let clients activate any telematics unit, not limited to their own, consolidating all fleets and subcontracting assets into a unified virtual cloud. The company leverages its ETA algorithms to identify operational bottlenecks, ensuring prompt attention to any delays or issues.
With a pay-per-use model for its API service and various products offered on a monthly subscription basis, GoMetro actively delivers tangible value to its clients. Over the past 12 months, the company has experienced a doubling in revenue, with plans to triple its current revenue by the end of the next year.
The Series A funding of $11.4 million will solidify GoMetro’s operations in the U.K., Europe, and South Africa. The company is also focused on expanding to the U.S., Latin America, and Australia within the next 12 months, tapping into markets where Zenobē Energy has a significant presence. Coetzee also expressed interest in the Middle East, particularly Dubai and Saudi Arabia, citing similar challenges and problems in fleet management in those markets.
GoMetro seeks to further growth and innovation, with plans to use the funding to grow its engineering teams, distribution and partner management teams, and invest in advancing electric bus and truck management. Coetzee expressed excitement about African technology’s global recognition, highlighting the partnership with a market leader in London as validation of the talent and impact that African technology companies can make on a global scale.
