Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) has accepted Atlanta-based MyLumper, a financial technology startup that services the logistics industry, into its ATDC Signature program.
Freight handling firms, also called lumper companies, load and unload freight. Typically, truckers who are moving merchandise from the warehouse to the receiving company — a grocery chain, for example — aren’t the ones who unload the trucks.
MyLumper, co-founded by Akmann Van-Mary and Ryan Droege, seeks to make payments to lumpers secure and timely.
The drivers hire lumper companies to unload or load the trucks. “The shipper allows the driver to do that; their job is simply to drive,” Van-Mary, who also is CEO, said, explaining drivers decrease their risk to injury and can rest more.
Lumper companies are generally independent from the receiving and shipping firms. These lumper companies are usually paid directly by the driver, who has to carry large sums of cash and file receipts for reimbursement with the shipper or carrier, he said.
MyLumper is an electronic payment platform that allows the lumper fees to be paid instantaneously, cutting the risks
associated with carrying cash or checks. Van-Mary said. “We enable their trading partners to issue real-time direct electronic lumper fee payments in a more convenient, efficient, and secure manner, while eliminating all cash and check transactions,” he said.
The company has already raised capital in a pre-seed round from strategic investors in metro Atlanta and Silicon Valley.
“MyLumper is seeking to solve two pain points affecting the freight logistics value chain, cash fraud and the time inefficiencies truck drivers face when getting paid with checks. The MyLumper mobile payments solution is simple and very scalable,” said Michelangelo Ho, ATDC’s financial technology catalyst. “MyLumper has attracted an all-star lineup of investors and customers, and ATDC believes the company is in a very good position to effectively capture a significant share of this large market opportunity.”
Startups accepted into ATDC Signature are deemed high-potential technology and life sciences companies that are located in or willing to move to Georgia. ATDC screens for how unique and defensible the core product or service is; the startup’s potential to scale and receive funding, and the domain expertise and team’s full time commitment. Additionally, ATDC weighs its ability to add value through its own programs and coaching.
In addition to the mentoring and coaching that comprises ATDC Signature Van-Mary said he wanted to join ATDC Signature because of the energy it brings to startups, connection to Georgia Tech and access to student talent.
“The networking with other companies is important to us,” Van-Mary said. “We want to be around like-minded companies and people and the ATDC environment is a great place for us to be able to scale and grow our company.”