Valued At $1.1 Bn, BlackBuck Looks To Raise $43 Mn

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings of BlackBuck’s parent company Zinka Logistics Solutions Pvt Ltd, accessed by Inc42, its pre-money valuation reached $1.11 Bn (INR 7,732 Cr) as on December 31, 2018.

Interestingly, this is approximately 4x jump from its valuation in September 2018, the filings showed. The company has now floated an offer to issue 15,668 Series D compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) on March 12, 2019. It is looking to raise INR 303.31 Cr ($43.5 Mn) from B Capital Asia and Global Private Opportunities Partners.

While B Capital Asia has been offered to pick up 4,608 Series D CCPS for INR 89.2 Cr, Global Private Opportunities Partners has been offered 11,060 Series D CCPS for INR 214.1 Cr.

Founded in 2015 by Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya, and Rama Subramaniam, BlackBuck offers its services across more than 1,000 locations and also reaches and impacts over 2,000 villages in India.

Prior to this round, the company has raised $127 Mn from marquee investors such as Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners.

In FY18, the company reported a 59% jump in its revenue to $128.3 Mn (INR 902 Cr) with a loss of $16.6 Mn (INR 116.7 Cr), up 35% in the year. It is to be noted that BlackBuck earns about 15-20% commission for providing business to trucks it hires. It has truck services listed on its platform and does an intelligent match for customers, based on their requirements.

Rajesh Yabaji had earlier told Inc42, “We work with 10,000+ shippers and 250,000+ trucks and use sophisticated machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to track freight logistics data across India, and provide the best match-making (matching shipper and FO) at the best prices.”

The company’s filings also showed that it aims to achieve profitability by December 2021. Even though the company’s growth slowed down in FY18 against FY17 and FY16, it was noted by Inc42 DataLabs in its What The Financials series, that the monumental growth in the fiscal year 2017 came because the company increased its portfolio of services and expanded its operations.

With Delhivery, Rivigo and BlackBuck raising funds back-back the battle in the logistics industry — which is expected to reach $307 Bn by 2020 has become more intense.