With disruptive technology, BlackBuck is trying to redefine the business-to-business logistics landscape in India.
This Bengaluru-based startup has created an online marketplace for inter-city freight services and has already made a mark. The startup, which is little over a year now, has attracted big investors like Tiger Global, Russian billionaire-investor Yuri Milner’s Apoletto fund, Accel Partners and Flipkart, raising about $30 million in two funding rounds.
Rajesh Yabaji, Co-Founder of BlackBuck said, “If you take the overall logistics sector, it is very much broken. The idea was to help transporters increase the utilisation of the trucks and have better access to demand. With any shipment that we take, the prices are discovered through the market participation—about 50-60 truckers bid for a particular shipment. The drivers get paid more for the shipment as the middlemen are not involved here.”
To further enhance the benefit for the truckers, the company has partnered with Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum to offer fuel at a discounted price. BlackBuck works on a transaction fee model and charges 10-15% commission on every deal.
“From a unit price point of view, we do not have a huge price difference from the offline business. Our focus is price discovery,” said Ramasubramaniam B, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, BlackBuck.
Apart from the regular GPS-enabled freight management, BlackBuck claims that they enable their clients be in touch with all the trucks. Through their app, it also allows users to buy insurance for their goods being transported. It also offers features like track and trace, truck mapping, verifications, professional account management practices, and checking the health and condition of the truck.
BlackBuck, run by Zinka Logistics Solutions and founded in April 2015 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya and Ramasubramaniam B, serves corporate customers like Hindustan Unilever, Jyothy Laboratories, Hindustan Coco Cola Beverages, Pepsi, Reliance, Asian Paints, Bajaj and Samsung, AMUL, Godrej Consumer Products among others.
Within a year, the company has expanded to about 220 locations across the country with about 50,000 trucks on the platform. Yabaji claims the company is witnessing 40% growth month-on-month. It is also scouting for acquisitions to bolster its play in the competitive logistics sector. Starting with 10,000 trucks in December 2015, its vehicle strength has gone up to 50,000 trucks as on May 2016.
According to a report titled ‘Logistics Market in India 2015-2020’ by market researcher Novonous, the entire logistics industry in India is pegged at $300 billion growing at a CAGR of 12.17% by 2020.
Source: The Financial Express
Image Courtesy: The Financial Express
