Mumbai-based online logistics startup, The Porter has raised $5.5Mn in Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital, Kae Capital and other investors. The funds will be used to facilitate geographical expansion, recruit talent and improve existing products and solutions.
Founded in 2014 by 3 IIT graduates Pranav Goel, Uttam Digga and Vikas Choudhary, The Porter’s mobile app allows users to hire vehicles for relocation or to move perishables, ecommerce deliveries and even construction supplies. It is an aggregator of light trucks and allows businesses and consumers to hire trucks and tempos on demand for their intra-city pickup and delivery needs. It currently has 300 vehicles and handles 10000 transactions every month in Mumbai and NCR. It also plans to expand to six cities within next year.
The Porter had previously raised over $471k (INR 3 Cr.) in funding from Kae in April this year.
The company has also partnered with three strategic angel investors who will help strengthen Porter’s operations and guide them in their next phase of growth. These include – Rajeev Chitrabhanu – CEO and Managing Director of JM Financial Services Pvt. Ltd., Anupam Mittal – Founder of People Group and Sandeep Tandon – Co-Founder of FreeCharge.
More than two dozen ventures in the intra-city logistics have come up. Few startups which competes with The Porter have also recently attracted funds, these include, Moovo, Blowhorn, The Karrier. The market for mini truck transportation in India is $6 Bn annually, of which only 3-5 % is organised and rest in unorganised. Not only this, online cab booking companies, Ola and Uber are trying to venture into logistics space.
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