LetsTransport, a leading trucking aggregator catering to enterprises, has secured $22 million in its Series E funding round, spearheaded by Bertelsmann India Investments. The round also saw participation from Rebright Partners, NB Ventures, Ales Global, Stride Ventures, CAC Capital, and other prominent investors.
Pushkar Singh, the co-founder and CEO of LetsTransport, expressed the company’s ambitious vision, stating, “Our vision is to change the way India’s trucking landscape looks like. Post-COVID what we have observed is, that there is a stronger digitisation ask which is coming in from both truckers as well as the clients that we work with. We are a marketplace aggregator, which works with large to medium blue scale companies, and about two and a half lakh truckers engage with us to find demand from these enterprises.”
Singh highlighted that the funds would be allocated towards expanding the company’s market presence across India. He said that market expansion would not only open up new geographies for existing clients but would also allow the company to develop more enhanced product offerings for their core customer base.
This latest funding round follows the company’s previous raise of $25 million in July last year, bringing LetsTransport’s total funding to $77 million.
Rohit Sood, Partner at Bertelsmann India, underscored the strategic significance of investing in LetsTransport, citing favourable macroeconomic trends driving growth in India’s logistics sector. Sood noted governmental efforts to streamline logistics processes, with a target to reduce logistics expenses to 8% of GDP. He emphasised LetsTransport’s alignment with these trends, particularly its emphasis on leveraging technology and data to enhance efficiency and compliance, resonating well with enterprise clients’ demands.
Looking ahead, LetsTransport aims to achieve a revenue run rate of approximately $150 million and anticipates achieving profitability by the end of the fiscal year.
In a separate development, Kalaari Capital, in collaboration with Avendus Capital and Foster Ventures, hosted the India Alpha Summit 2024 in Silicon Valley. With a focus on seizing India’s once-in-a-generation $30 trillion opportunity, the summit convened over 200 key stakeholders, including founders, technologists, investors, and policymakers from India’s vibrant startup ecosystem.
Vani Kola, Managing Director of Kalaari Capital, emphasised the transformative potential of Indian startups, stating, “We feel the Indian economy can see a 10x jump due to startups over the next couple of decades.”
The summit aims to showcase India’s burgeoning startup landscape to a global audience, with a particular emphasis on technology-driven sectors, Kola added.
Highlighting the pivotal role of startups in India’s digital GDP story, Kola projected the startup contribution alone to be at $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
“The Indian digital GDP is a very exciting story. And startups and innovation are at the center of that. If you look at the startup contribution, I think the startup contribution alone to the economy over the next decade, we estimate to be $1.5 trillion. So I think the startup disruption, and employment opportunities as well as reset on creating better and newer efficiencies in many sectors will see an unprecedented growth led by innovation,” Kola stated.
Kola also expressed optimism regarding deep tech, Software as a Service (SaaS), sustainable solutions, and consumer technology sectors in India, recognising them as key drivers of future growth and innovation.
Moreover, Fincfriends, the non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm of the digital lending platform RupeeRedee, has secured $7.8 million in a strategic funding round. Led by Incred Finance and Grow Money Capital, the round comprised a mix of debt and equity financing.
Established in 2017, Fincfriends specialises in providing quick short-term personal digital loans. Ajay Chaurasia, vice president and head of business, Product, and Marketing at RupeeRedee, revealed that the funds would be utilised for propelling the NBFC’s growth and expanding its product portfolio. Chaurasia highlighted that the strategic partnership with Incred would enable Fincfriends to reach a broader underserved audience across the country.
Watch the accompanying video for the entire discussion.