NexDash secures 5 million euros in seed financing

Berlin-based start-up NexDash has received seed funding of 5 million euros just three months after it was founded. The round was led by Extantia Capital and Clean Energy Ventures. The company is pursuing the goal of building Europe's first fully digitalized and electrified neo-carrier and thus driving forward the transformation of road freight transport.

Challenges in heavy goods transport

European road freight transport is one of the key economic sectors, but has been struggling with structural problems for years. Around 35 percent of traffic-related CO₂ emissions are caused by heavy goods vehicles. Although electric drives are becoming increasingly economically attractive, many haulage companies have outdated, small diesel fleets, low margins and limited access to capital. At the same time, an inadequate charging infrastructure and low digital penetration are hampering the modernization of the industry.

The electrification of Germany starts with logistics. We are bundling, transforming and electrifying these diesel fleets - creating the basis for a new industry: Trucking-as-a-Service made in Europe.

Michael Cassau, founder and CEO NexDash

NexDash aims to overcome these bottlenecks and systematically accelerate the industrial transformation.

Platform approach for electrification and digitalization

The start-up relies on an integrative approach that combines digitalization, electrification and consolidation. To this end, NexDash acquires medium-sized logistics companies, expands their operational capacities and gradually electrifies the acquired fleets. Financing and operational management are carried out via the company's own operating system NexOS, which controls energy supply, route planning, maintenance and capital deployment in real time.

The approach is complemented by a Trucking-as-a-Service (TaaS) platform that automates processes, cuts costs and reduces emissions. The aim is to build a scalable, digitally networked and emission-free logistics infrastructure.

Neo-Bank was yesterday, Neo-Carrier is today. With NexOS, we are connecting energy, capital and data - and developing the operating system of an electrified and increasingly autonomous economy.

Michael Cassau, founder and CEO NexDash

Cassau is supported by industry expert Karsten Sachsenröder, formerly a top manager at DB Schenker. The investors see NexDash as a start-up at a crucial turning point in the logistics industry. "Electrification in heavy goods transport does not fail because of the technology, but because of the orchestration. NexDash combines software, infrastructure and capital in a TaaS model and scales the transformation where it counts: in operations," emphasizes Joern-Carlos Kuntze, Partner at Extantia Capital.

Use of the capital and next steps

The fresh financing will be used for the acquisition and integration of smaller haulage companies, the establishment of the first electric truck fleets and the further development of NexOS. In addition, new charging infrastructure is to be created in order to realize efficiency gains in daily operations.

NexDash offers a data-driven, scalable business model in a sector that is ripe for disruption and CO₂ reduction.

Daniel Goldman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clean Energy Ventures

In the long term, the company plans to go beyond electric fleets and develop autonomous transportation solutions based on its own infrastructure. The aim is to create a broadly scalable, emission-free logistics platform for the European market.