[Funding alert] BlackBuck raises $150 M in Series D led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and Accel

Bengaluru-based online marketplace for trucking, BlackBuck has closed a $150 million (Rs 1050 Cr) round of equity funding led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and Silicon Valley-based Accel.

Other new investors who participated in the round are Wellington, Sequoia Capital, B Capital and LightStreet. The round also saw participation from existing investors Sands Capital and International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World Bank. This takes the total amount of funding raised by the company to over $230 million.

The company will deploy these funds to penetrate deeper into the market, by on boarding new trucking partners along the existing as well as new transportation corridors. The company will invest heavily in product and data sciences capabilities, to enable more efficient freight matching processes.

Speaking on the funding announcement, Rajesh Yabaji, CEO & Co-Founder of BlackBuck said,

“Long Haul Road Transportation is a $150 billion industry for India. Despite being the market leaders in this space, we believe we are still scratching the surface. We are committed to make trucking simple and powerful for the entire ecosystem. With this round of financing, we will invest to deepen our presence across the national market. Significant investments will be made into product development and data sciences, both these dimensions are core to BlackBuck’s marketplace approach.”

As part of this round, the employees at BlackBuck have access to liquidating 25 percent of their total vested stocks, at the current stock price of the company. This is the second time BlackBuck is executing a stock liquidation event for the employees of the company, the first one was in 2017. Over the last four years, the company’s employee stock option (ESOP) plan created a cumulative value of over $43 million. (Rs 300 Cr), and the company continues to invest heavily in this direction.

Founded in 2015 by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya and Ramasubramaniam, BlackBuck currently has over 300,000 trucks and 60,000+ fleet owners on its platform.

The company uses technology to match a trucker with a shipper real-time, enabling transparency, higher truck utilisation, better shipper services levels, and efficient pricing. It also facilitates services around trucking, by providing fleet cards, tyres, IoT, insurance and working capital credit to truckers.

According to the BlackBuck, fleet owners on the BlackBuck platform have been able to reduce idle time by 45% leading to an increase in earnings between 20 and 30%.

“Our asset light approach continues to enable us to dominate this market, with BlackBuck holding more than 90 percent of online market share of trucking in the country. While technology has helped us ensure a great shipping experience for our customers, being asset light has helped us experiment often and scale faster,” added Rajesh.

BlackBuck is operating pan India in over 3,000 villages and 400 industrial hubs. Currently, the Company has over 10,000 onboard clients including SMEs and large corporates such as Hindustan Unilever, Reliance, Coca Cola, Marico, Asian Paints, Tata, Vedanta, L&T, and Jindal.

In the trucking business vertical, BlackBuck competes with the likes of Delhivery, which has raised a capital of $670 million from SoftBank and Tiger Global among others, and Rivigo, that has secured a total funding of over $215 million from SAIF Partners and Warburg Pincus.

In March 2019, Delhivery marked its entry into the unicorn club at a valuation of $1.6 billion with a funding of $395 million in its Series F round led by SoftBank. BlackBuck and Rivigo both too are in the list of ‘Soon to be a Unicorn. According to reports, the valuation of BlackBuck is said be close to $951 million while Rivigo is valued at around $950 million.

Also Read: Blackbuck raises Rs 550 Cr funding led by Accel Partners US, B-Capital and Goldman Sachs, becomes a 'soonicorn'

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