The funding round was a result of Terminal’s participation in Y Combinator’s Summer 2023 cohort, where it stood out among seven Canadian-affiliated companies. With ambitions to streamline telematics integrations in commercial trucking, Terminal has already garnered commitments from 150,000 trucks to join its innovative system, as reported by FreightWaves.
The $3.1-million seed round was led by Golden Ventures and saw participation from notable entities, including Y Combinator, Wayfinder Ventures, Northside Ventures, McVestCo VC, and a group of angel investors, featuring Loop co-founder and CEO Matt McKinney.
Positioning itself as the “Plaid for telematics data in commercial trucking,” Terminal is actively developing an application programming interface (API). This innovative API aims to empower companies in the trucking industry focused on insurance products and fleet software by providing seamless access to crucial data, including GPS data, speeding information, and comprehensive vehicle statistics.
Addressing a pain point in the industry, Terminal’s product aims to simplify the complex landscape of telematics by providing a unified platform.
Terminal was launched in early 2023 by CEO Raghav Midha and CTO Connor Giles. Notably, both leaders bring valuable experience from their previous roles in product and engineering leadership at NorthOne, a Canadian-founded, New York-based neobank.
During their tenure at NorthOne, Midha and Giles gained insights into how Plaid and Stripe played pivotal roles in supporting the FinTech ecosystem. Drawing inspiration from this, and recognising a similar need for robust infrastructure in the transportation sector, particularly from Giles’ experiences in developing technology for his family’s logistics business, the duo joined forces to launch Terminal.
Terminal’s API, designed to be a central hub for telematics data, offers access to GPS data, speeding data, and various digitised vehicle statistics collected through electronic logging devices (ELDs).The startup plans to utilise the freshly secured funding to expand its team, as announced in a recent LinkedIn post.
This will enable insurance products and fleet software to seamlessly access essential data needed for regulated safety and insurance compliance. As highlighted on the company’s Y Combinator page, Terminal seeks to empower companies in the transportation, logistics, and fleet management sectors, where up to 40% of engineering capacity is often dedicated to integrations.
With the telematics market witnessing growth, Terminal’s innovative approach comes at a crucial time, offering a solution to the challenges faced by trucking fleet owners dealing with the disorganised nature of managing separate telematics providers for various needs, ranging from GPS to LEDs.
