Written by 
The South Africa-founded B2B software-as-a-service fleet management company GoMetro, now headquartered in London, has been selected as a recipient of a GBP147,000 (US$191,000) grant from the UK Freight Innovation Fund.
Founded in 2014 by Justin Coetzee, GoMetro is a B2B SaaS fleet management company that is providing a best-in-class, OEM-agnostic electrification management platform for bus and truck operators – leading decarbonisation in a hard-to-decarbonise sector.
The solution improves the operations of hundreds of fleets around the world by providing the building blocks for the rapid development of mobility applications.
Disrupt Africa reported late last year the startup had raised a GBP9 million (US$11.5 million) Series A funding round to help it further develop its platform in its key markets, and it has now secured key grant funding from the UK Freight Innovation Fund, run by the UK’s Department of Transport
“The grant will be used to finance a six-month trial with leading UK logistics companies Maritime Transport and Welch’s Transport to implement GoMetro’s EV-FIT solution for electric vehicle (EV) fleet transformation and the GoMetro Bridge fleet management software platform,” said GoMetro founder and CEO Justin Coetzee.
With its trial partners, GoMetro will be collecting and analysing fleet movement data for a chosen UK depot, from which they will identify critical vehicle and infrastructure specification needs.
“The grant is an amazing validation for GoMetro in the UK freight market, and implementing our solution with major logistics players is an incredible opportunity to show how our software platform can help fleet owners achieve better results,” Coetzee said.
The funding is the third tranche of the Freight Innovation Fund Accelerator Programme. The programme is a GBP7 million (US$9 million) government investment across three years to support the freight sector in deploying AI and automation to improve the way trains, lorries, vans, and ships carry parcels and goods.
It is funded by the UK Department for Transport (DfT) and delivered through Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership.