How BlackBuck drove digitization in the complex world of trucking

Even when you know a sector well, it can and will surprise you. All that is unorganized is not inefficient, Rajesh Yabaji of BlackBuck and Anand Daniel of Accel discovered over the course of building a B2B trucking marketplace. In this conversation, they discuss the 100 experiments that led to 10 which worked.
How BlackBuck drove digitization in the complex world of trucking
How BlackBuck drove digitization in the complex world of trucking
50 Mins
Available on your favorite podcast app
Guests
Anand Daniel
Anand Daniel
Partner, Accel
Anand holds an MBA from MIT, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue, and a BE in Computer Science from the University of Madras. He joined Accel in 2010 and focuses on investments in Consumer Tech and Marketplaces. His investments include Blackbuck, Emeritus, Swiggy, and TaxiForSure
Rajesh Yabaji
Rajesh Yabaji
Founder, Blackbuck
An IIT Kharagpur graduate, Rajesh was heading the supply chain division of ITC’s Leaf Tobacco business before starting BlackBuck. He’s known for his energy and resilience, and nowhere is it more evident than in his passion for building the world’s largest trucking network.
About 
BlackBuck

BlackBuck may be named after one of the fastest-running native Indian animals but the six-year-old company will tell you that mastering B2B logistics is slow and steady work. 

The company was founded in 2015 by Rajesh Yabaji, Ramasubramanian B, and Chanakya Hridaya, who came from an enterprise background where they had closely observed the problems of the trucking sector. But there was no easy solution. 

To make an impact in freight logistics, you had to be pan-India from the get-go. Ultimately, organization and fairness helped them win a uniquely challenging market, where a testbed is the size of a country. Around 70% of India’s truckers are on the app today. 

BlackBuck managed to take a somewhat bumpy but always exciting route towards unicorn status. In 2021, it raised $67 million as Series E funding, at a valuation of $1 billion.

That journey had them solving digital payments and fleet management for truck owners, before they could tackle the issue of matching shippers with trucks.

In this part of a series of conversations about marketplaces, supported by Accel, Rajesh Yabaji spoke alongside Anand Daniel, his long-time backer at Accel Partners. They tell Pankaj Mishra about all the questions entrepreneurs should be asking themselves when they build digital marketplaces for complex unorganized sectors.

We’re looking for the next generation of successful Indian marketplaces. If you’re an early-stage marketplace founder, apply now here or learn more about the #DecodingMarketplaces Startup Hunt.
We’d love to hear about your experiences with marketplaces. Let us share our learnings and build a better and stronger ecosystem. Write to us at seedtoscale@accel.com to be a part of the Accel family.
50 Mins
   •   
November 15, 2022
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