LetsTransport, a marketplace for fulfilling intracity last-mile deliveries has raised ₹10 crore from venture debt firm Blacksoil Capital. The firm had invested a similar amount in the company in November 2018. InnoVen Capital had announced an investment of Rs 13 crore in LetsTransport in May.
Bengaluru-based LetsTransport provides urban logistics solutions to enterprises by offering tech-enabled intra-regional transportation services for last-mile intracity deliveries. It enables enterprise clients to book light commercial trucks and manage bookings for a distance of up to 300 km. The startup has a presence in 15 cities in India and has a registered trucker supply of over 60,000 drivers.
"We are continuously scaling our network and improving our capabilities to help streamline urban logistics for enterprises in these trying times when enterprise businesses are increasingly looking to partner with organised logistics players to enable direct to consumer deliveries," LetsTransport Co-founder and CEO Pushkar Singh, said.
Founded in 2015, by IIT-Kharagpur alumni, Pushkar Singh, Sudarshan Ravi, and Ankit Parasher, the logistics startup provides solutions across industries like organized retail, FMCG and e-commerce. Some of its clients include Amazon, Flipkart, Bisleri, Vishal Mega Mart, Future Supply Chain, Coca-Cola, Delhivery, and Udaan.
“We are very much confident and believe that tech will help in transforming the majority of the present logistics scenario. Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the world and no industry is immune to it. Only those industries will survive that are able to transform themselves into an organized and tech-enabled industry and intra-city logistics is one such space," said Ankur Bansal, co-founder and director, Blacksoil.
A venture debt platform for high growth startups, Blacksoil claims to have disbursed more than ₹400 crore to more than 40 startups, since its inception.
In a statement, Ashish Sharma, CEO of InnoVen Capital India, said, "We continue to be bullish on the logistics space, and expect that organised players will continue to gain share on the back of higher efficiencies and superior service delivery. LetsTransport has built a fantastic business in a rather capital-efficient manner, and we are excited to be part of their growth journey.” InnoVen Capital has so far, completed over 250 transactions with more than 180 startups, including Swiggy, BYJU'S, OYO Rooms, Curefit, Myntra, Eruditus, DailyHunt, and FirstCry.
Earlier in 2018, LetsTransport had also raised $12 million (₹100 crore) in Series B funding round from Bertelsmann India Investments and Fosun International. The startup also acqui-hired web and mobile app development startup Pixlcoders in February.
Recently, it is being seen that startups have turned to the venture debt route, in order to finance working capital and increase their runways, as equity funding takes a big hit, during this ongoing COVID-19 crisis.