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Her software startup, , is currently part of the winter batch at and has just raised $600,000 in venture capital from a crop of investors.

Notable investors in TrueNorth include Y Combinator, CEO Jack Altman, CEO Parker Conrad and CSO Peter Fishman. Liquid2, Joe Montana鈥檚 fund, and others also invested.

While we usually don鈥檛 cover rounds of this size, an uptick in funding for the logistics and freight space made us more keen to look at what it takes for a new startup to enter the market, especially when billion-dollar companies like take much of the spotlight.

TrueNorth

Stedge was adopted as a child by a family of truckers, and that upbringing led her to have personal insight into the weaknesses of the industry.

Her grandparents were truckers in the 1980s–and 鈥�40 years later, little has changed,鈥� from a technology perspective she told SA国际传媒 News. She pointed to her cousin, Tom, who is a trucker.

鈥淗e still operates primarily on phone calls and mail,鈥� she said. 鈥淢ost financial tools in the industry are clunky at best, predatory at worst.鈥�

TrueNorth, founded by Stedge and , offers software that puts 鈥渋ndependent truckers under one roof.鈥� While the company doesn鈥檛 lease trucks, it helps truckers have a platform to manage insurance, fuel and maintenance. Think of it as an operating system, but for trucks. It also helps truckers with route optimization, dispatch and load coordination, and automated tracking.

The entrepreneur considers average trucking agencies like as her competitors.

Currently, truckers have to choose between working in a large fleet like JB Hunt with little independence, or give up revenue by being a solo operation. TrueNorth claims it offers large-fleet resources, like those listed above, with a lower take rate than traditional companies because its back-office is powered by software.

鈥淲e cut down the busywork to 10 percent of what it traditionally is, so that our employees can focus on the relationship side of trucking,鈥� she wrote in a blog post.

The TrueNorth founders previously spent time at where they worked on autonomous trucking technology. So this isn鈥檛 their first road trip.

鈥淎utonomy is really far away, at least a decade or two,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not going to displace truckers any time soon.鈥�

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