Post $70 Mn Series C Funding, Logistics firm BlackBuck Raises Venture Debt Of $23.05 Mn From InnoVen Capital

Bengaluru-based logistics firm BlackBuck has raised $23.05 Mn (INR 50 Cr) in a venture debt funding from InnoVen Capital. The company will use the newly raised funds to expand its service offerings.

Commenting on the InnoVen as venture debt partner, Rajesh Yabaji, Co-founder and CEO of Blackbuck said, “We are delighted to partner with InnoVen Capital. We have had a very good experience of working with them through the process and look forward to a deeper collaboration. They are an excellent team of skilled people who are entrepreneur friendly and understand the business and related challenges for new age companies”.

The announcement came in six months after raising $70 Mn in Series C funding round led by Sands Capital and existing investors such as Accel Partners, Tiger Global, Apoletto and Flipkart. Prior to that, BlackBuck has also raised around $30 Mn in 2015.

BlackBuck: Aggressively Grabbing The Rising Opportunities In Indian Logistics

According to Novonous market research, road freight is the largest transportation segment in India, constituting around 63% of the total freight movement.The sector is currently valued at $140 Bn. Inter-city logistics accounts for a massive 95% of road freight movement and by 2020, freight transport market in India is expected to be worth $307.70 Bn.

BlackBuck is a company which is continuously striving hard to grab a large chunk of this opportunity. An online marketplace for logistics transactions, BlackBuck’s founding team includes Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya, and Rama Subramaniam. The platform helps customers move truckloads between cities. It falls in the category of companies operating in full truckload (FTL) freight transportation.

The startup brings truckers and customers on a single platform to execute transactions using intelligent auction engines equipped with smart mobile interfaces. Its technology helps in managing logistics in the most effective manner.

Blackbuck’s clients include both corporates and small businesses. Companies like Unilever, Coke, ITC, Pepsi, Britannia, Godrej, Marico, and Jyothy Laboratories, besides firms like Asian Paints and EID Parry, are some of its clients. It is currently present in over 300 locations in the country.

InnoVen Capital: Funding So Far By The Venture Debt Firm

Recently, InnoVen Capital also released its quarterly performance report for Q2FY18, highlighting its support to a combination of On-shore/Off-shore funding to high growth startups in the Indian and Southeast Asian region.

As revealed, in the last quarter, InnoVen India has closed deals worth $26 Mn across different sectors including online travel, logistics, and SaaS.

Commenting on the last quarter performance, Ashish Sharma, CEO, InnoVen Capital, India said, “We are seeing strong interest from startups to explore venture debt as a means of financing. Given our Asian footprint across India, South-east Asia and recently, China, we are able to offer a unique value proposition to support Indian companies which have global aspirations. Our combination of on-shore/off-shore funding helps such companies optimize their funding mix & costs”.

Apart from the recent $23 Mn deal with BlackBuck, InnoVen also extended an on-shore/off-shore funding of $15.35 mn (INR 100 Cr) to NASDAQ-listed Indian travel services provider Yatra.com. A similar on-shore/off-shore funding was extended to Ace Turtle which acts as the omni-channel partner for brands and retailers in India and South-east Asia.

Other portfolio companies of InnoVen Capital include Yatra, Oyo Rooms, Swiggy, Byju’s, Nestaway, Pepperfry, Prizm Payments, Shaadi.com, Shopclues, Myntra, Freecharge, Manthan Software, Firstcry, Practo, Capillary Technologies in India, and 123RF, RedDoorz, M17 Entertainment, Oway, Fave, Guavapass and Pomelo in Southeast Asia.

As stated by Nitin Chhabra, CEO, Ace Turtle, “InnoVen Capital has been closely involved with the startup ecosystem in India and Singapore. As we look to build on our high growth journey in these regions, they were able to solve our capital requirement problem locally for both regions”.

InnoVen Capital also launched its operations in China this year aiming to offer multiple debt solutions across geographies. As of September 2017, InnoVen Capital has cumulatively imparted venture debt funding worth over $270 Mn in more than 125 innovative tech startups across India and Southeast Asia and funding BlackBuck has just added another rising star of the Indian logistics ecosystem to its increasing startup portfolio.