In Africa, a continent where more than 70 percent of goods are moved by informal, small-scale transporters who often work without access to credit or digital tools, one Nigerian startup is using technology to bridge the divide between informality and financial inclusion.
Founded in 2020 by Foluso Ojo and Williams Fatayo, truQ is digitizing Africa’s grassroots logistics industry, helping truck and van owners automate their operations, access financing, and expand their earning capacity, while enabling businesses to move goods more efficiently.
“Existing players solve single pain points, but truQ differentiates by integrating trip automation, financing, operational services, and marketplace demand in one super app,” Ojo said in an interview.
What truQ Is About
truQ is a logistics-fintech platform that serves as both a digital dispatcher and a financial gateway for Africa’s fragmented transport ecosystem.
Through its mobile application, transporters can log trips, monitor earnings in real time, and build digital financial identities, records that strengthen their eligibility for credit facilities from banks and micro-lenders.
The app also functions as a business management tool, offering integrated services such as discounted vehicle insurance, subsidized fuel access, and repair partnerships to reduce operational costs.
On the other side of the marketplace, companies that need to move goods, from retailers and manufacturers to e-commerce firms, use truQ to source vetted drivers, automate delivery schedules, and track shipments end-to-end.
By bringing both transporters and businesses under one digital umbrella, truQ reduces the friction that has long characterized Nigeria’s logistics landscape.
The Problem truQ Wants to Solve
Africa’s logistics backbone relies heavily on micro and small transporters, drivers who typically own one truck, operate independently, and manage their books with little more than paper ledgers or phone calls.
This informality creates a cascade of challenges: delayed payments, inconsistent pricing, high fuel wastage, and near-zero access to bank credit. Many of these operators are excluded from formal financial systems because they lack digital footprints or verifiable transaction histories.
“Over 70 per cent of Africa’s logistics runs on small-scale transporters who lack credit, face long payment cycles, and operate manually,” Ojo noted.
The result is a cycle of inefficiency, goods arrive late, customers lose trust, and transporters remain stuck in a subsistence model with thin margins.
The truQ’s model seeks to formalize this segment, transforming informal drivers into digitally recognized entrepreneurs who can access structured finance and stable income streams.
How truQ is Solving It
truQ’s core innovation lies in how it merges logistics operations with financial inclusion. Every trip logged on the platform generates verifiable data that can serve as proof of performance, creditworthiness, and reliability.
Transporters can then use this data to qualify for loans, invoice factoring, and short-term credit lines, reducing their dependence on informal lenders or delayed customer payments.
The app also integrates smart dispatch technology, automatically matching transporters with nearby delivery requests and routing them through optimized paths to save fuel and time.
Businesses benefit from automated invoicing, digital receipts, and delivery tracking, an efficiency layer that replaces the chaos of manual coordination.
In this way, truQ acts as a digital middle-layer that connects informal logistics players to the formal economy.
What Makes truQ Unique
While other startups have targeted narrow pain points such as delivery matching or payments, truQ positions itself as a “super app” for transporters, combining logistics automation, financial products, and operational support into one ecosystem.
Its business model is multidimensional: a trip marketplace for matching supply and demand; a finance layer offering loans and invoice payments; and a service marketplace where operators access discounted essentials like fuel, tyres, and repairs.
By consolidating these tools, truQ builds a self-reinforcing network that supports transporters through every stage of their work cycle.
This integrated design not only improves trip efficiency but also creates data loops that power new financial products, something the fragmented logistics market has long lacked.
Growth and Achievements So Far
Techparley gathered that in just four years, truQ has evolved from a small Lagos experiment into a national logistics-fintech contender.
The startup has raised US $470,000 in combined equity and grant funding from Techstars, V8 Accelerator, Ajim Capital, Expert Dojo, and other angel investors, with additional support from Google’s startup grant programme.
Its traction metrics underscore its momentum: the company is active in five major Nigerian cities, has processed over US $3 million in gross transaction value (GTV), disbursed US $80,000 in credit to operators, and digitized more than 300,000 trips.
With an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of over US $200,000, truQ projects to reach US $1 million in monthly GTV by the end of 2026. For a sector where digital adoption remains low, these numbers mark an exceptional rate of formalisation and trust-building among informal operators.
Plans for Market Expansion
truQ’s next phase focuses on deepening its Nigerian footprint while preparing for a pan-African rollout by 2030.
Expansion plans target mid-tier cities such as Ibadan, Port Harcourt, and Kano, urban centres where logistics challenges mirror Lagos but digital options remain scarce.
Beyond Nigeria, the company is exploring partnerships in Ghana, Kenya, and Côte d’Ivoire, regions with similar logistics bottlenecks and a growing appetite for financial-tech integration.
Revenue diversification will be central to this growth. The startup plans to scale its invoice and operational-expense financing services, expand its trip marketplace, and enhance its product-and-service marketplace for transport essentials.
This layered approach positions truQ not just as a tech startup but as a foundational logistics infrastructure player across emerging African markets.
Why This Matters for the Average Transporter
For Nigeria’s thousands of informal transporters, truQ represents more than an app, it is an entry point into the formal economy.
By digitizing trip records and automating payments, drivers can prove their reliability, access credit for maintenance or expansion, and enjoy consistent cash flow.
Access to discounted fuel, vehicle insurance, and repair services reduces their operational expenditure (opex), directly improving their profit margins.
The ripple effects extend beyond individuals. As small transporters become financially visible, banks and lenders can reach a previously unbanked segment, while businesses enjoy faster and more transparent delivery processes.
In a country where logistics inefficiency contributes to high inflation and supply-chain breakdowns, truQ’s model offers a template for inclusive growth.
