Power 25 2021: Gaurav Biswas, Chief Executive Officer, TruKKer, Ranks 10

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For Biswas, calculated risks are worth taking if they are in line with the vision of the future. Before founding TruKKer, he spent 12 years with international consulting firms such as AECOM and Arup.

He quickly rose to the peak of his career, becoming one of AECOM’s youngest director, at 32. During his consulting career across the UK, US and the GCC, he has delivered high-profile megaprojects like the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai and the Warner Bros. Theme Park in Abu Dhabi.

It was then when a single lightbulb moment during a dinner with friends had him jump into TruKKer. “What sparked inside me during my conglomerate stints also lit the vision of a highly scalable solution, i.e., TruKKer,” says Biswas. “I was right to evaluate opportunities in an unorganised yet potentially ripe market.”

Under his leadership and guidance, TruKKer has grown to be one of the largest and most advanced digital freight networks in the MENA region. With more than 30,000 trucks in its fleet, today TruKKer helps over 500 enterprise clients bring their global trade across the region seamlessly every day.

“As the CEO, I am responsible for the commercial and operational targets of my company hustling every day and hour. I am a stickler for growth – thanks to my past learnings and business acumen, I can think big and plan big. At 30, I was leading billion-dollar programmes and teams across four countries,” he points out.

TruKKer’s growth has been phenomenal over the years compared to other players in the region.

Biswas adds: “It is an extremely promising industry where opportunities lie in every challenge that the stakeholders of this traditional and somewhat primitive land freight sector. We are fast evolving into creating solutions beyond just land freight, with products that will enable the multiple small entrepreneurs that power this sector, by giving them access to privileges only larger organisations enjoy today. Technology enables us to be efficient while managing multiple stakeholders and we constantly add complexity to our engineering to make the process simple for our users.”

He attributes most of TruKKer’s success to technology innovation and smooth on-ground operations, which he claims are responsible for introducing reliability, transparency, and convenience to the monolithic freight world.

“It is important not to lose focus on the ground and always realize, it is an ace team that enables any company’s success, no one person,” he says. “In terms of successful expansion, TruKKer services cargo owners and transporters across UAE, KSA, Egypt, Bahrain, and Pakistan within four years of its formation.

“We are also eyeing a very significant expansion footprint across Africa and the Levant region, where we are exploring countries that are similar to Egypt, for example, Jordan and others.”

At the heart of TruKKer’s business expansion and development sits the technology innovation centre. TruKKer uses a hi-tech technology stack to crystallise the various disparate elements of the highly fragmented freight world through platformisation.

Looking ahead, TruKKer is planning investments in multiple infrastructure programmes that focus on transparency, security, and driver welfare. “It is our duty to not stop at technology innovation only, which is a hygiene factor for us, but to also identify infrastructure gaps that currently affect utilisations and customer experience,” he notes.