The startup specialized in improving the efficiency of the transportation sector through artificial intelligence, which connects cargo owners with those who move it, launched a tool for carriers to access a line of credit and generate a credit history that allows them to perform the services that the market demands: BeGoPay.
This tool is incorporated into the services that BeGo offers in its app to more than 6,000 users: access to new cargo, fleet management, automatic invoicing and an automated Carta Porte complement.
The line of credit is backed by a guaranteed payment that BeGo makes. With it, carriers will be able to make payments at any point of sale that accepts a physical or digital card, and keep an automatic record of expenses on each trip.
It works through a loan that the startup releases to carriers every time it assigns them a trip. To have the credit, carriers must go through a simple document validation process that takes a couple of minutes.
This is very relevant, since 80% of all cargo in Mexico is moved by ground transportation made up of micro, small and medium-sized companies, a segment that is highly susceptible to financial difficulties.
Ivan and Jasiel Cárdenas, founding partners of BeGo, told Expansión that there are two major problems affecting the transportation industry. The first is that one in five services that carriers generate is rejected due to delays or non-payment, coupled with the number of days of credit that customers request, which normally range from 30 to 120.
“If there is a delay in payments, the liquidity of carriers is delayed and then they do not have resources to generate the service, which causes the services that are requested to be canceled. The shortage of carriers complicates the supply chain globally,” said Jasiel Cárdenas.
The second big problem that the founders of the startup see is that in Mexico the carriers are not in the sights of the banks. 74% of carriers are not banked, according to the Inegi. This makes it difficult for them to access a line of credit and does not allow them to build a credit history that allows them to perform the services they might have.
“If we add that payments are delayed and carriers do not have the capacity or the tool to have resources, carriers stop providing their services to companies that require cargo transportation,” added Ivan Cárdenas.
BeGo seeks to grow its business through the digital acceleration of the cargo transport service, for which it developed the new function within its platform, which not only allows carriers to have greater liquidity, but also the possibility of accessing a network of thousands of customers, as well as managing your fleet in real time, automatically billing all your services and automating the Bill of Lading.
The founders of BeGo point out that with their technology, carriers have managed to reduce the time spent traveling empty finding cargo and increased their number of services, with which they have managed to generate an increase in their income of up to 30%.
As for the growth of the startup, two and a half years after its foundation, it has 70 people in its operations in Mexico, the United States and Argentina. Its sales have increased around 90% year over year and its demand is such that it has long waiting lines and has 6,000 users representing thousands of companies and freight forwarding agents.
“If we continue to grow as we have done so far, we do not see any problem in reaching a valuation that places us as a unicorn in the next two or five years. But we see it more as a natural result of the effort of the entire team than as a goal to get there and then not know what’s next,” Iván Cárdenas told Expansión in an interview in June of this year.
