Logistics Startup BlackBuck Enters Unicorn Club

Bengaluru-based logistics company BlackBuck has raised $67 Mn of equity financing in its Series E Round at over a billion dollars of valuation, the company said on Thursday (July 22). 

This makes the startup the 15th Indian unicorn to be minted this year and brings the total number of tech startups valued at $1 Bn or more to 57. BlackBuck is the third logistics startup to become a unicorn after Delhivery, which is planning an IPO this year, and Rivigo.

The round was led by Tribe Capital, IFC Emerging  Asia Fund and VEF. Existing investors Wellington Management, Sands Capital, and International  Finance Corporation also participated in the round. The company will use these funds to further penetrate the market and launch new service offerings for its customer base. The company will invest heavily in product and data sciences capabilities, with the aim of enabling more efficient freight matching for the Indian trucking ecosystem.

BlackBuck’s revenue grew by 27% year-on-year (YoY), from INR 1803 Cr in the fiscal year 2018-19 (FY19) to INR 2281 Cr in FY20.  However, during the same period, the company’s expenses also grew 27%, from INR 2148 Cr in FY19 to INR 2726 Cr in FY20. Thus, the company’s net loss grew 29% to INR 446 Cr in FY20. 

The revenue growth for the company seems to have considerably slowed down, especially considering that in FY19, its operating revenue doubled YoY to INR 1791 Cr, from INR 889 Cr in FY18. The company’s EBITDA has further slipped into the negative, from (-) INR 309 Cr in FY19 to (-) INR 421 Cr in FY20.

BlackBuck claims to be the largest online trucking platform in the country with over 90% market share of all online trucking activity. It digitises fleet operations for the truckers and operates a marketplace to help match trucks with relevant loads. The platform says it has more than 700K truckers and 1.2 Mn trucks on its platform, and with more than 15 Mn in monthly transactions. 

Rajesh Yabaji, Co-Founder & CEO of BlackBuck said “BlackBuck started with a dream to re-imagine trucking, to make it 10X simple and 10X efficient. It has been six years and we are just getting started to make a difference. We continue to dedicate ourselves for the foreseeable future to solve fundamental  Indian Trucking problems. The new financing round gives us more firepower to invest in fundamentally  hard trucking problems and continue deepening our reach & impact.”

BlackBuck’s last funding round was at $950 Mn valuation when it has raised $150 Mn from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Silicon Valley-based Accel, Wellington, Sequoia Capital, B Capital, Light Street Capital and International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World Bank.