A decade after ride-sharing exploded in reputation, a start-up from simply outdoors Denver, Colo. is betting there’s an untapped marketplace for these seeking to share commercial-trucks in a market dominated by the likes of Penske and Ryder.

Fluid Truck, which began in 2019, has raised $63 million in its first exterior spherical of fundraising.

“For many small and mid-size companies, it is such a ache to lease vans that they’re compelled to purchase or lease automobiles” stated James Eberhard, the founder and CEO of Fluid Vehicles.  ”Our platform permits them to shortly entry and guide a automobile as fast as you possibly can guide an Uber.  It permits them to flex up and flex down to essentially remedy all their wants.”

Fluid Truck is coming into a distinct segment market that has lengthy been dominated by corporations starting from U-Haul to Ryder to Enterprise Hire-A-Automobile. All are companies focusing on renting vans or field automobiles to customers and small corporations. Eberhard believes the method is sluggish and cumbersome, the homeowners of small corporations will gravitate to an app and repair to provide a business automobile on quick discover. 

“It takes a pair minutes and you are able to do it 24 hours a day seven days every week,” he stated.

On paper, Fluid Truck’s marketing strategy is sensible. The problem is successful over enterprise homeowners who, for years, have turned to determine gamers like Penske Truck Leases.  Penske has a fleet of greater than 50,000 automobiles, ten instances the scale of Fluid Truck’s present fleet.

As Fluid Truck seems to increase, it will likely be leveraging its relationship with IKEA. The furnishings chain’s funding arm is one in all a number of corporations backing the Sequence A funding.  In an announcement asserting his agency’s funding, Krister Mattson, managing director of Ingka Investments stated, “that is one other step in enabling IKEA retail to offer final mile supply providers to our prospects, proceed to enhance on our buyer promise, whereas additionally decreasing our environmental footprint.”

Whereas Eberhart may envision Fluid Vehicles sometime being a part of a fleet of automobiles that might help IKEA prospects, the main target for now  is increasing operations from the present footprint of greater than 25 markets.  

“The complexities of working and managing a fleet are one of many largest complications that almost all companies do not wish to cope with,” stated Eberhart. “We will make it straightforward by means of our platform.” 

CNBC’s Meghan Reeder contributed to this report