There is much inefficiency that is plaguing India’s transportation industry. This has in ways more than one resulted in pulling the economy of the country down.
Taking note of the situation, BlackBuck came into existence to modernize freight and logistics across the country. Soon the startup grew to become a celebrated unicorn.
BlackBuck is the start of a new era in transportation- a well-organized channel that makes trucking easier for both shippers and truckers. Also, BlackBuck which was launched in 2015, has been a pioneer in bringing trucking’s offline operations online, whether it’s matching a shipper with a driver or modifying the infrastructure surrounding transportation to make payments, insurance, and financial services more convenient. BlackBuck connects companies with trucking companies and freight forwarders.
The company has created a simple software for truck drivers in India, who are often illiterate. That allows them to accept jobs and navigate to their destinations using Google Maps. Businesses may use similar software to place orders on the client-side.
Also, BlackBuck is committed to making it easier for millions of truckers to book a load. And move at full capacity, as well as giving shippers of all sizes access to the appropriate vehicle. At the right time, for the right price, all with a single click. BlackBuck has grown to become India’s largest transportation firm.
BlackBuck chief executive Rajesh Yabaji said that Tribe Capital, IFC Emerging Asia Fund, and VEF led the $67 million Series E financing round in the six-year-old startup, valuing it at $1.02 billion (up from about $850 million in the 2019 Series D round). This year, BlackBuck is the 16th Indian firm to achieve unicorn status.
In a statement, Arjun Sethi, co-founder, and partner at Tribe Capital stated, “India’s supply chain and logistics business are shifting from paper and pencil to digital. BlackBuck’s capacity to track output and productivity development has simplified the industry’s logistical issues in a short period of time.” Its sustained high-velocity expansion promises to change the Indian transportation environment even further.
Around 700,000 drivers and 1.2 million vehicles in India are connected to the platform. But which handles over 15 million transactions each month. Indian truck drivers did not completely embrace digital till 2019 and also supply activity has expanded by 20 times since then, which is a major rise in the numbers.
Rajesh Yabaji, CEO of Blackbuck, recounts the challenges he faced while launching the company and reinventing logistics. Explaining a new concept to truck drivers, who were generally unskilled and unfamiliar with technology. Proved to be a challenging undertaking.
When BlackBuck was first launched in 2015, just 40% of truck owners had smartphones, and only 7% of truck drivers had smartphones. By 2019, 100% of truck owners and 70% of truck drivers have smartphones. Owing to the introduction of low-cost Android smartphones and the availability of significantly more inexpensive mobile data. On top of that, the government began to push for digital proliferation. After a lot of work and effort, a digital toll system has been implemented and is currently running well. Many state governments have mandated the use of GPS, forcing truck drivers to go outside their comfort zones and become conversant with current technology.
Birth of a B2B trucking company
Rajesh completed his degree at IIT Kharagpur, and his interest in operations led him to pursue internships in the sector. Rajesh started his career with ITC and worked directly under one of ITC’s leading executives for two years. During which time he helped define his career and hone his talents. He believes that your first boss shapes and defines who you are and what you may become.
“I was able to grow and integrate the majority of what I learned from him to BlackBuck,” explains Rajesh, who worked on a supply chain project while at ITC. It was here that Rajesh met Rama Subramaniam, an industry veteran with over 17 years of logistics expertise, who would later join BlackBuck as the second Co-founder.
Giving back to society
BlackBuck is a lucrative, successful, and unusual start-up that is concerned not just with its own objectives. But also with the well-being of others. They consider it important to give back to society. They have drastically improved the lives of the families of truck drivers by giving them facilities that make their work somewhat easy and efficient. The expansion of BlackBuck’sFASTag product has been one of the company’s major triumphs in recent years. (In India, FASTag is an electronic toll collecting system. But that allows users to pay tolls immediately from their connected prepaid or savings account or straight to the toll owner.) According to Rajesh, BlackBuck accounts for 35 percent of India’s trucking toll spending today.
During this time, BlackBuck has also changed. The platform has switched from a contact center-based approach to an app-based one for booking orders. Since more truckers and fleet owners now have smartphones and can book directly, the startup’s reliance on brokers, who assist link them to truckers in smaller areas, has decreased.
Future Plans
BlackBuck has swiftly developed its online freight marketplace and fleet management services in the middle of the Covid outbreak. According to Saadia Khairi, fund head at IFC Emerging Asia Fund, BlackBuck’s contribution to greater transparency and efficiency in India’s huge, fragmented. And mostly unorganized long-haul freight business has the potential for major developmental effect.
According to Yabaji, BlackBuck will use the additional money to expand its footprint across India. And provide numerous new services to its marketplace. BlackBuck has a foothold throughout Europe as well. The startup’s overseas strategy is still in its early stages, and the company’s primary focus is still on India.
While businesses like BlackBuck are helping to address this fragmented industry with their tech-integrated platforms. The truth remains that significant change in this field will only come through increasing digitalization.
Logistics companies have a stronger chance of changing the freight transportation business in India. Now that GST is in place and internet penetration is expanding. The challenge is how BlackBuck will stand out from the growing number of rivals in this space and grow to new heights.
