Chennai-based B2B logistics startup FR8 has raised about $971K (INR 6.5 Cr) from agritech-focussed VC firm Omnivore Partners.
The funding will be used to ramp up its operations and technology. It will also be used for the company’s expansion in other Indian cities.
Founded in 2016 by Vasanth Immanuel and Jayendran Panneerselvam, FR8 is a technology-driven logistics service provider, offering long-haul trucking solutions to large corporates, SMEs, and the agribusiness ecosystem. It is an online marketplace for logistics transactions, helping customers move truck loads between cities.
Vasanth Immanuel, co-founder, FR8 said, “We offer a four-hour commitment to our clients and manually connect orders which have not gotten matched automatically. We believe that we are very capital-efficient as we have scaled to $374K of monthly bookings without raising any capital. We are planning to grow 10 times over the next 12 months. We plan to expand the network from seven cities – Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Madurai.”
As per an official statement, the platform currently claims to have 2,500 trucks from 400 vendors on its marketplace. It also claims to book around 1,000 orders worth about $374K (INR 2.5 Cr) per month.
Omnivore Partners is an early stage agritech-focussed investment fund with a corpus of $38 Mn.
Commenting on the investment, Mark Kahn, Founding Partner, Omnivore said, “Omnivore believes that FR8 will transform long-haul trucking across India while benefiting the agribusiness ecosystem through optimised backhauling of farm commodities.”
According to its official website, FR8’s clientele include Philips, Asian Paints, Pepperfry, Britannia, and Paperboat among others.
In 2015, B2B logistics startup focussed on the trucking segment BlackBuck secured $25 Mn from Tiger Global, Flipkart and others. In June 2016, New Delhi-based transportation solution provider in B2B segment, Gobolt raised an undisclosed amount in its Pre-Series A round. In the same month, freight logistics marketplace Dipper Technologies raised an undisclosed amount from unnamed angel investors.
FR8 competes with TruckMandi, ReturnTrucks, and Rivigo among others.
