Online trucking platform BlackBuck has turned unicorn right after securing $67 million in fresh funding led by Tribe Capital, IFC Emerging Asia Fund and VEF at a valuation of more than $1 billion.
The investment, which is element of the company’s series E economic round, also saw participation from current investors Wellington Management, Sands Capital and International Finance Corporation, the firm mentioned in a statement on Thursday.
The Bengaluru-based firm had last raised $150 million in funding from a clutch of investors in May 2019 at an estimated valuation of about $850 million. The company’s total fund tally now stands at more than $300 million. BlackBuck counts Accel, Apoletto Asia, B Capital, Flipkart and Goldman Sachs amongst its early backers.
The firm will deploy the fresh capital to broaden its attain and launch new services for clients. A portion of the funds will also be used to construct on solution and information sciences capabilities. “The new financing round gives us more firepower to invest in fundamentally hard trucking problems and continue deepening our reach and impact,” co-founder and CEO Rajesh Yabaji mentioned.
Founded in 2015, BlackBuck digitises fleet operations for truckers and operates a marketplace to assistance match trucks with relevant loads. The platform has a network of more than 1.2 million trucks and more than 700,000 truckers with month-to-month transactions totalling more than 15 million. The firm that straight competes with players like Rivigo claims to drive more than 90% marketplace share of all on the web trucking activity. It counts big corporates like Hindustan Unilever, Reliance and Coca Cola amongst its more than 10,000 customers.
“Blackbuck has scaled its online freight marketplace and fleet management services rapidly. Blackbuck’s contribution to increased transparency and efficiency in the large, fragmented and predominantly unorganised long-haul freight market in India offers the potential for significant developmental impact,” mentioned Saadia Khairi, fund head, IFC Emerging Asia Fund.
Analysts are betting on the logistics tech space as organizations create sophisticated options to plug the sectoral gaps. While classic companies have been severely impacted throughout the Covid-induced lockdowns, tech-driven logistics commence-ups have been greater placed to run their operations. For instance, in the freight forwarding market, classic freight forwarders on an typical had been operating at 30-40% capacity whereas digital players could operate at 60-70% capacity of volumes, they mentioned.
The Indian commence-up segment has now added 16 unicorns so far this year, against 11 unicorns it added in 2020.