Trunkrs: faster, greener, friendlier

“The thing about ecommerce is that, even if you live in a small village, the internet offers everything at your fingertips. It’s awesome,” says Jan Wijn, CEO of Trunkrs, a logistics company based in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, that is out to improve the delivery services that make that accessibility so awesome.

“We had two main ideas,” Jan explains. “We wanted to be consumer-centric and we wanted to be sustainable.” From his long experience working in logistics, Jan argues that logistics companies are typically not sensitive enough to the needs of their clients and there’s a lot of customer frustration with inflexible deliveries. Instead, Trunkrs offers a service that is more customer-friendly and flexible: “We designed our IT system ourselves with the end-consumer in mind, making it as convenient as possible. We built it all in such a way that the consumer is in control. For example, you can change delivery address up to one minute before delivery. People really appreciate that feature. And of course we’re super-fast: pick-up in the morning, delivery in the evening.”

At the same time, Trunkrs pursues a very sustainable business model. Everything starts with the innovative software platform that provides detailed insights of the full delivery chain to all actors and unlocks optimal dynamic planning of parcel deliveries. “It’s the management layer that runs the orchestra (cars, depots, drivers) really, and we wanted to do it sustainably. First of all, we’re asset-light: we don’t own assets - no vans, no buildings. We work with courier services and delivery services. They use our IT system and our app. It makes everything much more efficient. But we’re not there yet. We aim for 100% zero emissions. We’re currently running pilots and tests, working on the range of electric vans, figuring out the challenges with infrastructure and by end-2022 we want to be working with 100% electric vans. We’re already helping our partners get more out of electrical cars, with reduced cost per mile compared to fossil-fuel driven vehicles.”

An equity investment from SET Ventures, a venture-capital firm backed by the EIF under the EU’s Investment Plan for Europe, allowed the company to develop the product further and grow. “We met quite a few investors that focus not only on finance, but also sustainability. That really helped us find a good match. Doing things more sustainably is no longer an optional extra. We think it’s important for ourselves and our children. It’s a no-brainer for each business to do things that make the world a better place.“

Location: Nieuwegein, Netherlands

Financial intermediaries: SET Ventures

SME: Trunkrs

Sector: logistics

Number of employees: 65

Financing purpose: product development; growth

EIF Financing: EFSI sub-window 1

For further information about EIF intermediaries in The Netherlands, please refer to:
http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/nl