Boasting a fleet of more than 1.2 million trucks on Indian roads, online trucking platform BlackBuck entered the unicorn club on June 22, 2021. After the startup closed a $67 million Series E funding round of equity financing, it was made possible.
Currently holding a valuation of $1.02 million, BlackBuck’s funding round was led by Tribe Capital, IFC Emerging Asia Fund and VEF. Existing investors Wellington Management, Sands Capital, and International Finance Corporation participated in the round.
The company said that it would use these funds to penetrate the market further and launch new service offerings for its customer base. The statup would invest more in product and data sciences verticals to enable more efficient freight matching for the Indian trucking ecosystem.
The six-year-old startup is a digital logistics provider linking businesses and transporters with truck owners for inter-city logistics in minerals, metals, fast-moving consumer goods among sectors. BlackBuck is the sixteenth startup and the first logistics firm to turn a unicorn this year. The startup is also backed by B Capital, Flipkart, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.
Founded in 2015, BlackBuck brings the offline operations of trucking online, be it matching a shipper with a trucker or reshaping the infrastructure around trucking to facilitate payments, insurance, and financial services. The startup makes it easier for millions of truckers to book a load and move at capacity and enable shippers of all sizes to have access to the right truck at the right time for the right price – all at a click of a button.
Rajesh Yabaji, co-founder and chief executive of BlackBuck, said that the company looks to foray into financial services and help its trucking partners with insurance and other working capital needs. “We want to now foray into financial services and provide all kinds of financing and working capital products to meet the needs of our trucking partners,” said Yabaji.
