Pulpo, a mobility solutions company focused on intelligent fleet management, grabbed a $8 million round of financing led by LatAm Nazca Ventures. Other participant investors are Femsa Ventures, Swanlaab and Mexico Ventures, as well as new investors like Cracks Fund and other business angels.
Pulpo’s software simplifies fleet management, allowing for savings of up to 30% in operating costs, as well as savings of more than 50% in man-hours spent on fleet management.
The fresh funds will allow Pulpo to continue expanding the functionalities of its platform: from electric vehicles management, sustainability and emissions reduction, as well as to reinforce its use of AI to predict vehicle incidents, reduce costs and optimize operations.
The transaction closed a few months after the startup announced an alliance with Repsol to promote more efficient and sustainable fleet management. Last May, Pulpo and the energy company sealed an agreement to provide Repsol’s professional clients with a digital tool for the control and tracking of vehicles for professional use.
Pulpo plans to hire more than 200 people over the next twelve months in areas like engineering, product, sales and customer success in different regions. Some of its customers include Cemex, Telcel, DHL, Arca Continental, MercadoLibre, 99 Minutos, Farmacias del Ahorro, Banorte and Jokr.
The Mexican-Spanish startup was founded in 2017 by Evaristo Babé, Javier Arambarri, Eduardo Infante and Pablo Sosa, already has presence in 15 countries.
“PulpoPay is going to be the first payment method to allow its customers to spend less and operate better” – Evaristo Babé, CEO of Pulpo.
Evaristo Babé emphasizes that one of the most important projects to be promoted with this round is PulpoPay, a payment method specialized in vehicle fleets that promises to help companies control their total expenses, including fuel, travel costs, maintenance, etcetera, by analyzing the data generated by their vehicles. This will add to fraud detection and reduction, as well as driver safety and control functionalities through collaboration with drivers.
From the beginning Pulpo’s vision has been clear: reduce emissions to improve the quality of life. With that in mind, they plan to continue to design operational solutions to their customers’ carbon footprint, while profitably continuing to reduce costs and management time.