Flipkart-backed startup raises $70 million in Series C round

Bangalore-based logistics startup BlackBuck has raised USD 70 million in Series C round of funding. The round was led by Sands Capital in participation with existing investors such as Flipkart, Accel Partners and others.

The company plans to use these funds to scale up operations and will invest in building technology-led products for the freight industry.

BlackBuck is an online marketplace for inter-city trucking. It caters to long distance in-land truck requirements of companies, providing them with a transparent and low cost channel of freight procurement.

Commenting on the latest funding, Rajesh Yabaji, co-founder and CEO, BlackBuck said, “The journey going ahead is to fuel this revolution and enable the entire transportation ecosystem to converge towards it. This round of fund will help us invest much more aggressively in products & technology.”

Expressing faith in the company, Flipkart’s Binny Bansal said, “Its tech innovations has helped several industries realise seamless road transportation of goods. So the latest investment builds on that progress and ties in with Flipkart's strategy of developing the startup ecosystem in supply chain and logistics even further.”

“There is a tremendous opportunity in the intercity FTL segment for a technology player given that the industry is very fragmented and technologically less penetrated.  BlackBuck is uniquely positioned to leverage this opportunity because of its primary focus on technology and data analytics," added Anand Daniel, Partner, Accel.

The company claims to have over 1 lakh truckers on its platform and serves MNCs like Unilever, Coke, ITC, Pepsi and others. It raised a USD 25 million Series B round from Tiger Global and Apoletto (DST-Yuri Milner Founder Fund) with co-investment from Accel and Flipkart in December 2015.