Marketplaces
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Episode
How BlackBuck drove digitization in the complex world of trucking
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, organisation 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 unorganised 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.
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We’re building Passionfroot 1, an operating system for creators to manage their business.
We’re based in Europe and raised our $ 3.4m pre-seed round from Creandum and US angels such as Vlad (Webflow) and creators like Ali Abdaal.As we’re creating a new category and as the creator economy is global and mostly online, we’re building from Day 1 a global company and product that helps creators monetize around the world.
This brings a lot of complexities especially in terms of payments and taxes as our early users are based both in Europe and the US and deal with cross-border transactions.What are Do’s and Dont’s for European startups who have a global ambition and build products for a global customer base from Day 1. Anything you would do differently?
Thanks @pjbouten! Love how you’ve thought about incrementally shaping a category with a focus on product and service, and only then thinking about getting the message out there vs the other way around.
And totally agree on the distinctions and overlaps both self-serve and enterprise motions share.
Thanks, PJ, for taking the time to address questions from the great vantage of shaping Showpad into a global, enterprise SaaS brand!