Loaded, and reloaded: How BlackBuck turned into a trucking unicorn
Forbes India (July 29, 2021)
The B2B trucking platform built muscle, shed fat and focussed on SMEs to scale rapidly. It leveraged technology and offered solutions that addressed the typical pain points for both truckers and shippers
Six years ago, it was a question of muscle versus fat for Rajesh Yabaji. The answer looked like a no-brainer for the IIT-Kharagpur graduate who headed the supply chain division of ITC’s leaf tobacco business before co-founding BlackBuck in April 2015 with Chanakya Hridaya and Ramasubramaniam B. The medium-framed man with a muscular built opted for brawn. “Our gross margin used to be 15 percent,” he recalls, alluding to the performance of his fledgling B2B online trucking platform during the first few months. The flattering business metrics made sense. Reason: Too much operational inefficiency plagued the transportation industry. “We used to make a lot of money on every transaction,” recounts a beaming CEO, who built the business looking to solve the problem of corporate big boys such as Coca-Cola, HUL and PepsiCo. Within a week of starting, BlackBuck raised $5 million in seed round in April.
In four months, the startup started flexing its muscle. “In August, we are an Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) breakeven company. Can you imagine!” says Yabaji. The report card looked impressive: Revenue was Rs 3 crore and the cost hovered around Rs 30 to 33 lakh. “We didn’t know we were Ebitda breakeven until an analyst from an investment firm pointed out,” he adds. The promising performance managed to grab more investor interest; BlackBuck got over half a dozen term sheets, and valuation climbed at a crazy pace. (Read More) (BlackBuck website)
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