Goldman, Accel lead Series D for India’s BlackBuck
Indian online long-distance trucking marketplace BlackBuck has raised a $150 million Series D round led by Goldman Sachs and existing investor Accel Partners.
Sands Capital, Sequoia Capital, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) also returned for the Series D round, while Wellington Management and B Capital made their first investments in BlackBuck. The new commitment brings the company’s fundraising total to over $230 million.
BlackBuck was founded in 2015 as an Uber-like service aimed at India’s highly fragmented intercity trucking industry by connecting long-haul truckers directly with customers through a mobile app. The company claims to have more than 300,000 trucks on its platform, operating out of 400 industrial hubs, with a market share of more than 90% of India’s online trucking industry.
BlackBuck claims fleet owners on its platform have been able to reduce the idle time of their trucks by 45%, while shippers can save up to 15% per shipment due to the price transparency it provides. The new capital will be used to add new trucking partners and expand to new transportation corridors, while investing in data science improvements.
“Logistics is a huge business opportunity globally and India is a very interesting market in this context,” said Sameer Gandhi, a partner at Accel, in a statement. “BlackBuck, through its asset-light marketplace model, has already proven to be a game changer and has successfully solved legacy problems like fleet under-utilization and price opaqueness. We have deep faith in the company’s vision and execution capabilities and are backing it to be a dominant global player soon.”
Accel has participated in all of BlackBuck’s funding rounds to date, most recently a $27 million funding round in October led by Sequoia and the Sands-led Series C round in 2017. Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has also played a significant role in the company’s development both as a customer and as an investor with first-hand experience in building an online business.
More on South Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.