BlackBuck, founded by IIT Kharagpur graduates Rajesh Yabaji and Chanakya Hridaya, along with Ramasubramaniam B in April 2015, is an online marketplace that connects large and small companies with truckers and freight operators across 300 locations in India on a real-time basis.
Yabaji met his two co-founders during a five-year stint (2010-2015) in the supply-chain division of ITC Ltd. Hridaya, prior to joining ITC in 2013, had interned at the company under Yabaji in 2011, while Ramasubramaniam was then a third-party consultant to the diversified conglomerate with a focus on supply chain management.
There are 9 million trucks and 20,000 logistics companies operating in India’s $140-billion road freight transportation industry, according to Yabaji, the CEO of the company. BlackBuck has 100,000 trucks on its marketplace platform, which are used by the likes of Unilever, Marico, Godrej, Coca-Cola and ITC.
“As a customer, it [BlackBuck] gives me complete transparency into what is happening in freight transport, which was earlier an opaque world. The other brilliant aspect is its ability to give me a good rate,” says Sanjiv Rangrass, CEO, agribusiness division, ITC.
Freight charges on the Bengaluru-based 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. Using technology, BlackBuck has been able to help truckers optimise their route network and cargo, while ensuring there are no empty freight routes.
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That this business to business (B2B) model is promising is evident from the equity funding BlackBuck has managed to raise—$30 million from top global investors such as Accel Partners, Tiger Global and Apoletto, which is a fund backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.
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