Three-year-old start-up Fortigo Network Logistics plans to extend its platform to include lending services apart from being a trucking solutions provider.

According to Anjani Mandal, CEO and co-founder of Fortigo Network Logistics, work on the new arm and the technology platform for fleet owners has begun.

The company is also eyeing a fresh round of funding primarily to put the technology platform in place. Fortigo raised about $10 million in Series A from existing investors Accel Partners and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani last fiscal. It had earlier raised about $2 million in seed funding from both Nilekani and Accel at the time of its launch in 2015.

“We want to create an ecosystem for the sector. From being a marketplace provider to direct transportation services, we now intend to leverage our platform in lending working capital,” he told BusinessLine .

According to Mandal, the company realised the gap in extending working capital lines to truck companies that banks were unable to fill. And, the idea of a lending platform was mooted.

The platform will have different options to include bankers, non-banking financial companies and global funds.

Direct transportation

The company began its journey as a market place connecting truck companies to manufacturers. Later, digital payment options were added to the platform.

Realising the need to step up its play in the logistics network, the company itself forayed into direct transportation from January this year.

“Today, direct transportation accounts for 55 per cent of the total business, and by the end of this fiscal this segment should account for 70 per cent of revenues,” he said.

Fortigo, incidentally, does not own any truck. But has around 20,000 vehicles on its network.

The number, Mandal says, will go up as the company expands the ecosystem.

“The trucking logistics business is slowly moving towards becoming an organised segment and as our role in the ecosystem increases — with our own lending platform — more and more players will come in,” he said.

According to Mandal, Fortigo is expected to be cash positive by the end of this fiscal and is likely to generate a ₹300-crore turnover.