6 Degrees Capital has entered Mexico and led a $4 million investment in Uvicuo, with participation from 17Sigma and 468 Capital.
Uvicuo developed a comprehensive solution that combines modern payment technology, expense management and logistics intelligence to drive cost savings for logistics and fleet-heavy industries.
Mexico: a booming logistics industry plagued with inefficiencies
With a population of 130 million, more than 5 million registered businesses, and a GDP of $1.8 trillion, Mexico stands as the 13th largest economy globally. It is a manufacturing powerhouse which moves 80% of cargo by road, rather than rail or sea, thanks to a well-developed highway network.
Despite the enormous size of the on-road logistics sector, there is plenty of scope for efficiency gains. The low hanging fruit is fuel spend. To be able to expense fuel as a cost in Mexico, companies are required to purchase fuel with pre-paid fuel vouchers. While the voucher system helps the government collect taxes, it is abused by everyone in the value chain.
The companies that process the voucher payments charge transaction fees up to 5%. The gas stations that accept fuel vouchers charge premium fuel prices. Drivers conspire with gas stations to put less fuel in the truck and share the savings in cash, or use part of the voucher value for grocery shopping. Finally, drivers often lose receipts, which again prevents companies from expensing the fuel.
Overcharging and fraud causes companies to overspend on fuel by 15-20%. Since fuel accounts for a third of the cost base in fleet-heavy businesses in Mexico, this translates into an approximate 5% hit to net profits.
Uvicuo - the financial OS for businesses with on-road operations
Uvicuo helps companies regain this lost margin with a software platform that integrates payment infrastructure, expense management and logistics intelligence.
The product suite includes:
Modern spend-cards: eliminating the need to issue physical pre-paid vouchers. The cards can be used at all petrol stations, not just the ones overcharging because they accept vouchers. Uvicuo charges normal payment processing rates instead of 5%. It has robust controls in place to monitor what is being purchased with the card (you can no longer scan groceries at the till). And trucking firms save on admin as they no longer need to issue vouchers per trip (and calculate the amount per trip to minimise the chance of fraud).
Anti-fraud technology: reconciling fuel bills with truck mileage and telematics data, flagging if drivers might have underfilled trucks.
Route optimisation: recommending cost-effective fuel stations along the route.
Digital invoicing: automatically expensing fuel costs (no more lost receipts).
AI-powered expense management: reconciling logistics-related costs with accounting software.
A no-brainer for the customer
The average customer spends roughly $1,000 on fuel and related costs per driver per month, while saving 15% through Uvicuo. That equates to a $150 cost saving per month per driver. For a customer with 100 vehicles, the savings add up to $180,000 per year. In relation to the costs associated with Uvicuo’s platform, clients enjoy a 10x return on investment and see an average 5% uplift in profit margin.
With such clear benefits, it is not surprising that Uvicuo’s customers demonstrate rapid driver adoption growth and high card usage.
Unparalleled product and commercialisation velocity
Uvicuo is just about a year old. The company was founded in Q2 24, finished a first version of its product in Q3, and signed the first clients in Q4. Initial customers joined from a range of fleet-intense businesses: trucking, logistics, last-mile delivery, agricultural and security.
We were deeply impressed by how quickly the team has built and brought to market solutions for complex, physical industries. The offering already exceeds the fuel management value proposition of incumbents such as Edenred (15 years old, €8 billion market cap) and Corpay (25 years old, $25 billion market cap). And the product gap will keep on rising given their nimble and agile approach.
So much value to go after
Two start-ups have already demonstrated the opportunity at hand in the United States. Coast, which was founded in 2020 in New York, grew to +100k vehicles and a +$250m Series B valuation (July 2024). AtoB launched in 2019 in San Francisco and scaled to +500k vehicles and an $800m valuation.
We believe Mexico offers an equally attractive opportunity. With $43 billion in total fleet operations spending, the market is gigantic. The customer pain is more pressing compared to the US, and legacy players have a limited technology offering.
Over time, there is the potential for Uvicuo to capture more of the customer spend, thereby increasing the revenues per client. The tech roadmap includes software to manage toll expenses, vehicle maintenance, lease payments, and payroll management. Ultimately, Uvicuo wants to optimise 80% of fleet costs.
A sneak peak of the team’s bold ambition to take on the wider ecosystem below:
Founders showing unparalleled execution speed
An investment case is only as strong as the founders behind the company. Two exceptional individuals are the helm of Uvicuo:
CEO Iker Haro previously worked at Revolut. He initially helped develop the card spend management solution in London, and later led card expansion of Revolut in Mexico.
CTO Diego Galico is a seasoned engineering leader with prior roles at Globant and Adevinta. His leadership credibility is reflected in the fact that four engineers already followed him from Adevinta to Uvicuo.
Iker and Diego impressed us throughout the due diligence with their exceptional execution standards and product velocity. Iker has clearly embraced Revolut’s build-and-launch culture, while Diego brings the technical expertise to execute at pace.
We couldn’t be more excited to be part of their journey and throw some fuel on their fire.