BlackBuck, the India-based freight services platform backed by online marketplace Flipkart, is raising between $100m and $150m in funding, Times of India reported yesterday, citing two sources familiar with the development.
The round will be led by Accel Growth, a fund owned by venture capital firm Accel, and includes $30.7m from investment banking firm Goldman Sachs according to regulatory filings. Sequoia Capital, B Capital, Sands Capital and the World Bank-owned International Finance Corporation are also taking part.
The company has so far secured $74.9m according to the filings, and will be valued at more than $800m, the sources said. Two people familiar with the matter told the Economic Times the valuation would be between $800m and $850m.
BlackBuck runs an online freight aggregation platform that allows users to connect to a network of 280,000 truckers with surplus space in their vehicles. The service then uses artificial intelligence to calculate the most beneficial route and distribution of goods.
Sequoia’s SCI Investment VI fund, Accel and Sands Capital provided $27.3m of the funding for the round in October 2018, before Sands Capital and IFC added $12.4m in January.
The company was valued at approximately $180m when it last raised money, in a $70m series C round in early 2017 that was led by Sands Capital and backed by Flipkart, Sands Capital and IFC, bringing its overall funding to about $100m.
Accel had initially led BlackBuck’s $5m series A round in 2015, investing alongside Flipkart, before both joined Tiger Global Management and Apoletto Asia for its $25m series B later in the year.
