China’s Freight Logistics Industry Reimagined: Congratulations to Full Truck Alliance on Their Journey to the NYSE.
Today, Full Truck Alliance (FTA) is going public on the New York Stock Exchange. We’re excited that the founding team’s dream to reform China’s freight logistics industry with digital advancements and improve the quality of drivers’ daily lives is realized with this milestone.
Lightspeed China first invested in Full Truck Alliance’s series A round of financing when it was known as Yunmanman (FTA’s predecessor company) in 2014. We have continued over the years to have strong conviction in the company, investing in subsequent financing together with Lightspeed Venture Partners to complete 7 rounds over the company’s 8-year growth journey to IPO.
We still remember our visit to a logistics park in Shanghai in 2013. Walking in, it was quite a sight to see thousands of small blackboards hanging there, with a myriad of delivery requirements written on them, waiting for drivers to pick them up to inform their routes. Furthermore, most fleet drivers in China model a “mom-and-pop” store, with stable income of the utmost importance to them. It’s really hard to imagine that China’s road freight industry was so inefficient at that time.
It’s at this moment, walking the floor of the logistics facility, that we realized the vision and potential impact of FTA founder Peter Zhang’s ambition to shape the future of logistics with technology industry-wide throughout China.
Today, FTA is the world’s largest digital freight platform by gross transaction value (GTV). In China, millions of truck drivers benefit from FTA’s information platform to have a better life, more stable income and a safer working environment. FTA moves information, data, transactions and other trade factors in the freight logistics industry online, while efficiently matching both ends of freight supply and demand by providing an open information platform. This creates a perfect closed loop for vehicle-to-cargo matching and dealing, connecting cargo owners and truck drivers.
And it’s working – FTA connects over 2.8 million truckers to 1.3 million shippers across more than 300 cities via over 100,000 routes in China. Total transaction volume (GTV) reached RMB173.8 billion (USD $25.6 billion), accounting for about 64% of GTV from China’s digital freight platforms.
Peter is an entrepreneur with imagination, strong leadership and the ability to execute on his vision. We are so fortunate to have walked along this path to IPO with him as he’s built an ecosystem to connect millions of cargo owners and truck drivers.
We know as venture capitalists, that the possibility of emerging large platforms exists in many industries across China. And we know there are many entrepreneurs like Peter who are brave enough to innovate, and daring enough to imagine building and bringing positive change. It’s our pleasure to support these entrepreneurs on their path to innovation.
Congratulations to Peter and the Full Truck Alliance team today as they propel the transformation of China’s highway logistics!
