India B2B logistics start-up BlackBuck gets $25m

The company, which received $5 million from Accel and Flipkart earlier this year, will use the new capital to ramp up expansion, develop new products and strengthen its team, according to a statement. BlackBuck wants to cover 200 locations nationwide next year.

It was founded in April by Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya and B. Ramasubramaniam and currently has a team of 200 and a footprint of 40 locations. Clients include Asian Paints, Unilever, Britannia, Godrej, Marico, Jyothy Laboratories and EID Parry.

Yabaji noted that India's freight industry is estimated to be worth $100 billion but business remains unorganized, fragmented and largely conducted offline. Anand Daniel of Accel said that BlackBuck's tech-enabled marketplace model means the company is well-positioned to achieve scale.

Flipkart's investments are intended to complement its existing e-commerce business, with GPS navigation and location-based services provider MapMyIndia and Cube26, which develops gesture control technology for smart phones, among those receiving funding in recent months.

Binny Bansal, Flipkart's co-founder and COO, said the start-up ecosystem for supply chains is particularly interesting as the current infrastructure is not very reliable. "Our investment in BlackBuck is a continuation of our strategy of developing and integrating this ecosystem," he added.

Previous investments in India's online logistics space include Sequoia Capital and Kae Capital's $5.5 million commitment to Porter in June. There has also been considerable VC participation in hyper-local delivery services.

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• Topics
• Venture
• Technology
• South Asia
• Venture
• Technology
• Logistics
• India
• Accel Partners
• Tiger Global Management