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Don't know how to govern, digitize or facilitate trucking? Facing a hell lot of problems? Have no ideas about how to match a shipper with a trucker? Literally, the price discovery might sound to be a big issue here for those beginners who have no idea about it. Furthermore, building a comprehensive understanding of insurance, financial services and the infrastructure around trucking are things that take time to develop. This is why BlackBuck was founded as a one-stop solution to organize, digitize and simplify trucking!
BlackBuck, the tech startup came into existence on April 20, 2015. Read more about BlackBuck app, its Founders and Team, BlackBuck Funding and Investors, BlackBuck Products, BlackBuck Net worth, Black Buck owner, its Logistics service, and more BlackBuck insights here in this StartupTalky article ahead:
Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Blackbuck |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Bangalore, Karnataka, India |
| Sector | Logistics and Transportation |
| Founders | Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya and Ramasubramaniam B |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Total Funding | $364 Million (July 2022) |
| Revenue | $113.53 mn (Rs 866.73 crore in FY21) |
| Valuation | $1.02 bn (July 2021) |
| Parent Organization | Zinka Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd. |
| Website | blackbuck.com |
BlackBuck - About
BlackBuck - About
BlackBuck - Industry
BlackBuck - Founders And Team
BlackBuck - Startup Story
BlackBuck - Mission and Vision
BlackBuck - Logo
BlackBuck - Business Model
BlackBuck - Revenue Model
BlackBuck - Funding And Investors
BlackBuck - Growth and Revenues
BlackBuck - Competitors
BlackBuck - Future Plans
BlackBuck is India's largest trucking system, which is redefining the logistics ecosystem of India. It provides shippers and truckers quick and easy availability, transparent pricing, efficiency, trustworthiness and thereby, bring in a seamless experience with Data Science at its core. Besides, the company uses technology to match a shipper with a trucker and facilitate price discovery. BlackBuck promises the essentials and believes in building future-ready products for their clients.
The company has simplified trucking since 2015. BlackBuck has boasted of having 15000+ clients on April 28, 2021.
BlackBuck Company Products
BlackBuck aims to build 'must have' and 'future ready' products to meet the demand of the age. The company offers its products and services with data science at its core. BlackBuck focuses both on driving consumer changes and working with analytics and machine learning. The BlackBuck company products, which are instantly available, fairly priced, and offer a seamless experience help create infinite value and deliver measurable results for shippers and the operators of the fleet.
BlackBuck serves both the shippers and fleet operators with products and services designed for both.
BlackBuck Products and Services for Shippers:
BlackBuck Products and Services for Fleet Operators:
BlackBuck - Industry
The trucking industry of India is ever-growing and is pacing continually with the growth of the logistics and supply-chain industry. There are presently 12 million+ trucks in India, which is expanding each day. The population of trucks in India is developing at a pace of 15% every year.
BlackBuck - Founders And Team
Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya and Ramasubramaniam B are the founders of the company BlackBuck.
Rajesh Yabaji
Rajesh Yabaji is known as the Co-founder and CEO of the company. He pursued his education at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur from where he got his dual degree. Currently, he is living in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. He worked as the Category Development Manager commonly known as the Business Manager in ITC Limited for 4 years and 10 months (June 2010 - June 2014). He was also a 3 months intern from May 2009 to July 2009 at Schindler India Pvt Ltd. after being a Summer intern for two more companies - University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA, and Rio Tinto Alcan.
Chanakya Hridaya
Chanakya Hridaya is the co-founder of BlackBuck. He also completed his Bachelor's as well as his Master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering respectively. Hridaya served previously as the Assistant Manager of Supply Chain at ITC before co-founding BlackBuck. Before that, Chanakya has been an Intern at ITC adn a Visiting Researcher at University of Strathclyde.
Ramasubramaniam B
Ramasubramaniam B is also one of the founders of BlackBuck. He is the Product Manager at BlackBuck, who has earlier been the Director at Miebach Consulting. Ramasubramaniam was a student of IILM.
BlackBuck has an incredible team of smart engineers, business developers, energetic leaders, creative designers, and other aspirational individuals.
BlackBuck - Startup Story
Rajesh Yabaji was the head of the supply chain division of the ITC leaf tobacco business immediately before he founded BlackBuck. Yabaji recounts in a Forbes interview that he decided to establish BlackBuck with an aim to solve "the problem of corporate big boys such as Coca-Cola, HUL, and PepsiCo."
After founding the company in April 2015 with Chanakya Hridaya and Ramasubramaniam B, BlackBuck raised its seed capital of $5 mn in April itself. Within 4 months, Yabaji's startup started flexing its muscle.
“In August, we are an Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) breakeven company", said Yabaji.
Rajesh Yabaji earlier said in an interview that his company was "unicorn by heart and not yet by number", before it actually turned a unicorn in July 2021.
He is moving forward towards his goal. He says, "until now they are unorganised". This is because most of the trucks come from rural areas. Presently, Blackbuck has 1.2 million+ trucks and around 700,000+ truckers under its wing.
Blackbuck is almost like Ola and Uber for trucks. The founder says that he is investing in a few areas from the very beginning to get supply online, to comprehend the technology, and to transact online which is the biggest problem to solve for them. So, which is why they have created the 'boss app' to simplify things.
BlackBuck - Mission and Vision
"It is our mission to make trucking simple, intuitive and efficient through cutting-edge technology", said the Founder and CEO of BlackBuck once in an interview.
The vision of BlackBuck is "to reinvent the freight-booking logistics sector, with a focus on uplifting the truck driver in the process."
Shubham Kumar
BlackBuck - Logo
The company marks the beginning of a new path.
BlackBuck - Business Model
BlackBuck company charges its customers a fixed rate for their contract business. In their demand model, they charge both their customers and truck owners a commission totally depending on the freight value. They say that their company has each and everything that takes to win a truck race smoothly. The founders got great help from their bachelor's degree and they realised that there could be a larger play of trucks in the industry for technology to come in.
BlackBuck - Revenue Model
BlackBuck generates over 93% of its revenues from contract trucking services. It also provides telematics services of live tracking of all the trucks to the clients, which monitors their shipment all through.
BlackBuck also has a tie-up with the petroleum products marketers and banks for which it acts as an agent. It takes care of the distribution and management of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and collects a commission for the same. These ancillary services brings in the remaining portion of the operating revenue.
The company earns about 15-20% commission for providing business to the trucks it hires. It has got properly listed truck services listed on its platform and its job is to match the truck intelligently along with the customers, totally which depends on the customer's requirements. Logistics is the soul of every invention.
The company is redefining the logistics landscape, thereby making it reliable and efficient. The annual revenue of BlackBuck is currently reported to be Rs 866.73 crores, in FY21.
Ashwini
BlackBuck - Funding And Investors
BlackBuck has raised an amount of $364 Million in funding in total over the 9 funding rounds that it has seen. With the latest funding round led by Tribe Capital, VEF, Emerging Asia Fund, and other existing investors, the company has successfully raised $67 million. This has made the total valuation of BlackBuck shoot up to $1.02 billion, eventually making it the second unicorn in the space, after Rivigo and the third unicorn in the logistics sector, which also includes Delhivery.
| Date | Transaction Name | Money Raised | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 22, 2021 | Series E | $67 Million | Tribe Capital, VEF, IFC Emerging Asia Fund |
| May 7, 2020 | Debt Financing | $4 Million | Trifecta Capital Advisors |
| November 26, 2019 | Series D | Rs 560 Million | - |
| May 1, 2019 | Series D | $150 Million | Accel, Goldman Sachs |
| October 8, 2018 | Series D | $26.86 Million | Sequoia Capital India |
| October 18, 2017 | Debt Financing | $67.15 Million | InnoVen Capital |
| March 21, 2017 | Series C | $70 Million | Sands Capital Ventures |
| December 11, 2015 | Series B | $25 Million | Accel |
| June 22, 2015 | Series A | $5 Million | Accel |
BlackBuck is funded by 13 investors. Trifecta Capital Advisors is the most recent investor.
BlackBuck - Growth and Revenues
Known as India's largest trucking platform, BlackBuck takes pride in the service they provide. It has 1.2+ mn trucks and 700K+ truckers, on its platform. The fleet owners in this company were able to reduce idle time by 45% directing towards an increase in earnings between 20% and 30%. BlackBuck is currently a unicorn trucking service provider, which raised $67 mn to enter the coveted club of unicorn companies in India in July 2021. BlackBuck also boasts of having over 15 mn monthly transactions on its platform.
The revenues of BlackBuck significantly decreased in FY21, becoming Rs 866.73 cr from Rs 2235.7 cr, which it was in FY20.
BlackBuck Revenue Breakdown
| BlackBuck Revenue Verticals | FY21 | FY20 |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation Services | Rs 808.51 cr | Rs 2215.36 cr |
| Other Services | Rs 58.22 cr | Rs 20.29 cr |
BlackBuck Expenses Breakdown
The annual expenses of BlackBuck dropped down to Rs 1134.6 cr in FY21 from Rs 2741.7 cr in FY20. The largest portion (70.2%) of the BlackBuck expenses is made up of transport services that it extends to its customers. These expenses saw a 64% dip. The employee benefit expenses came next in line, which were also reduced significantly by 31.4%. BlackBuck also shed 200 of its employees during this fiscal year, therefore, reducing these expenses greatly. Here's a look at the major expenses verticals of BlackBuck and comparing the same with that of the previous fiscal.
| BlackBuck Expenses Verticals | FY21 | FY20 |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation Cost | Rs 797.04 cr | Rs 2207.77 cr |
| Employee Benefit Expenses | Rs 121.40 cr | Rs 177 cr |
| Finance Cost | Rs 52.34 cr | Rs 66.81 cr |
| Training Recruitment Expenses | Rs 29.71 cr | Rs 41.40 cr |
| IT and Communication Expenses | Rs 14.51 cr | Rs 26.72 cr |
| Other Admin and Operating Expenses | Rs 119.60 cr | Rs 222 cr |
BlackBuck Financials
| BlackBuck Financials | FY21 | FY20 |
|---|---|---|
| Operating Revenue | Rs 866.73 cr | Rs 2235.65 cr |
| Total Expenses | Rs 1134.6 cr | Rs 2741.7 cr |
| Profit/Loss | Loss of Rs 241.44 cr | Loss of Rs 452.4 cr |
| EBITDA Margin | -19.9% | -16.4% |
The annual losses of BlackBuck were reduced by over 46% YoY. The BlackBuck losses were reported at Rs 241.4 crore in FY21, which were reported at Rs 445.5 crore in FY20. On unit metrics, BlackBuck has spent Rs 1.31 to earn a single rupee of revenue.
The COVID-19 pandemic truely proved to be a bane for BlackBuck, eating 60% of its operating revenue in FY21, however, with the country back in the post-pandemic normalcy, BlackBuck is looking for some growth in the next fiscal for sure.
BlackBuck - Competitors
The top competitors of the company are:
- Xpressbees
- Rivigo
- Delhivery
- ElasticRun
- Blowhorn
Vidhi Punamiya
BlackBuck - Future Plans
The goal of the company is to deploy cash to onboard new trucking partners, expand to new transportation corridors and invest heavily in product buying and data science capabilities.
Rishabh Rathi
FAQs
What is BlackBuck app?
BlackBuck is India's largest trucking service provider, which is currently a unicorn. Founded in 2015 by Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya and Ramasubramaniam B, BlackBuck aims to make trucking simple for every shipper and trucker.
What does BlackBuck company do?
BlackBuck uses technology to match a shipper with a trucker and facilitates price discovery. It also enables infrastructure around trucking including payments, insurance, financial services.
Who is the Blackbuck boss?
Founded by Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya, and Ramasubramaniam B, BlackBuck is currently led by Rajesh Yabaji.
How much is the Blackbuck transport expense?
BlackBuck transport expense was last measured at Rs 797.04 cr in FY21.
What is the business model of BlackBuck?
The company charges its customers a fixed rate for their contract business. In their demand model, they charge both their customers and truck owners a commission totally depending on the freight value. They say that their company has each and everything that takes to win a truck race smoothly.
What is the BlackBuck funding?
BlackBuck funding currently stands at $364 mn.
Who is the founder of BlackBuck?
Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya, and Ramasubramaniam B are the founders of BlackBuck.
What are the main BlackBuck company products?
BlackBuck provides products and services both for the shippers and the fleet operators.
