PremiumBENGALURU: LetsTransport has raised ₹10 crore from venture debt firm Blacksoil Capital. The intra-city logistics provider had raised ₹13 crore from Innoven Capital in May.
Bengaluru-based LetsTransport provides logistics solutions to enterprises by offering tech-enabled intra-regional transportation services. It was founded in 2015, by IIT-Kharagpur alumni, Pushkar Singh, Sudarshan Ravi, and Ankit Parasher.
While enabling enterprise clients to book trucks and manage bookings through a mobile app, LetsTransport deals in the light commercial vehicle segment, for a distance range of 100-200 km.
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.
“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 organized logistics players to enable direct to consumer deliveries," said Pushkar Singh, co-founder and CEO, LetsTransport.
Currently, LetsTransport has a presence in 15 cities in India and claims to have a registered trucker supply of more than 60,000 drivers.
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, Mint also reported 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.
