BlackBuck raises $70 million from Sands Capital and existing investors

Image: Selvaprakash Lakshmanan for Forbes India

Amidst the current gloom in the startup space — with reports of startups shutting down and not being able to raise funds — there comes some good news for the 2017 Forbes India 30 Under 30 winners Rajesh Yabaji (28) and Chanakya Hridaya (27), the co-founders of BlackBuck.

The Bengaluru-based online road freight marketplace BlackBuck has raised $70 million (Rs 476 crore) in Series C funding from Sands Capital and existing investors such as Accel Partners, Tiger Global, Apoletto, and Flipkart. In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, Blackbuck said that it would utilise the funds to scale up its operations.

The two-year-old startup, on a real-time basis, connects large and small companies with road freight operators across India. BlackBuck currently has over 1 lakh trucks on its platform, is present across 300 locations in the country and boasts of a client list such as Asian Paints, Unilever, Coke, Britannia, Godrej, Marico, Jyothy Laboratories and EID Parry.

“BlackBuck is able to deliver strong value proposition for both customers and truckers by deploying the marketplace model and a differentiated technology platform. We are very excited to continue partnering with BlackBuck in their growth story,” says Anand Daniel, partner at venture capital fund Accel Partners.

Through technology BlackBuck is trying to make India's highly unorganised trucking industry more efficient and transparent. Freight charges on the BlackBuck’s marketplace are based on a dynamic pricing model. While no discounts are offered, overall freight costs are 10-15 percent lower than offline freight service providers.

“Its tech innovations has helped several industries, from manufacturing to FMCG to e-commerce, realise seamless road transportation of goods,” says Binny Bansal, co-founder and Group CEO, Flipkart. “The latest investment builds on that progress and ties in with Flipkart's strategy of developing the start-up ecosystem in supply chain and logistics even further,” Bansal adds.

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