11 Sep 2024
Meet Transmetrics – a pioneer in predictive analytics and machine learning whose state-of-the-art AI platform optimizes transport flows through cutting-edge algorithms. The scale-up drives innovation in the industry and is also a member of the EIC Scaling Club's Smart Mobility group.
Based in Bulgaria, Transmetrics has been operational for over a decade, bringing significant benefits to top-tier logistics companies worldwide. We spoke to Transmetrics' Co-founder and CEO, Asparuh Koev, and Head of Marketing, Alexander Lapshin, to learn more about the company and its goals.
Empowering sustainable growth in the transport industry
The global transport industry is constantly dealing with challenges imposed by inefficiencies in transportation and ever-growing carbon emissions – from moving half-empty containers to inefficient truck logistics and the pressure of the upcoming EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Being an experienced professional with an extensive background in the transportation sector, Transmetrics' CEO Asparuh knows precisely how to offer solutions to these challenges.
Transmetrics' core mission is to optimize the use of transportation with the power of data and help companies, especially mid-sized ones, remain sustainable in the light of globalization and the increasingly consolidated market.
As Asparuh explains, mid-sized companies, the backbone of the economy, are usually the least supported by technologies: “They're doing a lot of their work in Excel or with other very rudimentary tools.” By helping to optimize their operations, particularly in areas like fuel efficiency and route planning, Transmetrics aims to increase mid-sized companies' profitability and resilience, contributing to a more sustainable and competitive transportation industry as a result.
When it comes to Transmetrics' platform, AI is definitely one of the components making it so powerful. However, the company doesn't go with AI as its main selling point: “We've been doing AI before it was modern,” says the company's CEO and adds that transportation is a very traditional industry, in which one should position its products wisely. Transmetrics' platform uses AI in forecasting, optimization, decision-making, decision support, and other algorithms and integrates large language models. Moreover, Transmetrics is ISO 27001 certified, meaning customers' data is managed according to the most secure and safe practices.
Where a culture of excellence meets love for logistics
Transmetrics is run by a team of experienced and talented professionals. The company's CEO, Asparuh, has run two companies before, and several people on the current Transmetrics management team are his ex-colleagues. Plus, many of them hold a background in the logistics field, “so they understand the business inside out”.
Moreover, the current management team has been around for more than five years: “We know each other very well,” says Asparuh.
For example, Alexander, Transmetrics' Head of Marketing, joined the scale-up straight out of university about eight years ago, fell in love with the logistics industry, and climbed up the career ladder within the company:
“[Logistics] is such an important industry, and I think many people don't understand this importance. And that's why [our work] is highly crucial – to improve all the transport flows and the efficiency of the transport companies.”
Transmetrics eagerly supports employee upskilling. For example, one of the founding employees of Transmetrics, Marta, who joined the company back in 2013 as a Business Analyst, also took care of the company’s administration while they were just 4 people and later combined BA and administration responsibilities when there was such a need. A couple of years ago, she came to the management saying she wanted to try UI/UX. “Now she is doing amazing UX and is building the face of all our products. She completely reinvented herself,” Alexander tells us. Hence, the company sees much value in promoting their current employees to higher positions rather than hiring new managers from outside. Transmetrics' CEO Asparuh adds:
“There's a saying that the company's culture is like the body's immune system, so when you have a good culture, it rejects the foreign body that doesn't fit. It doesn't allow the company to be infected with things that are not good.”
From EU funding to EIC Scaling Club
The company's upward trajectory hasn't been without its hurdles. Asparuh highlights two main challenges, one being access to funding as a company from Bulgaria: “I was able to tap into my Northern European network, and we attracted some amazing business angels who invested in the company. But still, it has been tough because of our location.”
The other challenge is connected to the business strategy Transmetrics initially chose. Instead of tapping into their current customer segment – medium-sized businesses – the company went for large corporations. “It took me six or seven years to realize that we were showing up to a gunfight armed with a knife,” says Asparuh, explaining that corporations often expressed interest but took a lot of time to close the deal, which wasn't suitable for the scale-up back then.
In 2020, Transmetrics received funding from the EU research and innovation funding program, Horizon 2020, which helped the scale-up develop new functionalities and improve its product. In 2023, the company closed a €2.5 million funding round led by the European Innovation Council Fund and Impetus Capital.
Since its launch, Transmetrics has raised nearly €7.5 million in equity and grants and is actively looking to raise more, as emphasized by the Transmetrics CEO. This, in turn, brings us to Transmetrics' participation in the EIC Scaling Club.
“EIC Scaling Club is a great example of how the ecosystem can help companies accelerate, become better, achieve their goals, and overcome the challenges they experience.[...] In the [EIC] Summit, I realized that we're among the right people because all of these companies are innovators, and that's who we are in the logistics industry.”
Transmetrics is reaping the benefits of its involvement in the EIC Scaling Club. As Asparuh notes: “Right now, our top priority is raising €5 million, as everything else is in place.” Thanks to the expert guidance from Club members, Transmetrics has significantly improved its investment pitch. Additionally, the Club provides a platform for networking with potential investors, a key goal that the scale-up is eager to meet.
About the EIC Scaling Club
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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