B2B logistics startup BlackBuck, operated by Zinka Logistics Solutions has raised around Rs 50 crore ($7.6 million) from InnoVen Capital, venture debt arm of Singapore’s Temasek.
The development will be used to expand its service offerings.
“The funds will get ploughed into the growth of the organization, which is typically around people, processes and product. We plan to penetrate deeper… and expand our offering to other services,” said Rajesh Yabaji, co-founder and chief executive at Blackbuck, adding that the firm looked at venture debt as a means to diversify its sources of funding.
“For us it was about trying out different sources of capital. At different phases, access to different sources of capital has opened up for us. Venture debt is one of the things we wanted to try. Innoven had been in touch with us for the past one-and-a-half years. They are an excellent team of skilled people who are entrepreneur friendly and understand the business and related challenges for new-age companies,” Yabaji told Mint.
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Earlier in March, BlackBuck had raised $70 million in equity funds from US-based VC firm Sands Capital and World Bank arm International Finance Corp., existing investors Accel Partners and Flipkart Ltd.
“We are seeing strong interest from start-ups to explore venture debt as a means of financing. Given our Asian footprint across India, South-east Asia and recently, China, we are able to offer a unique value proposition to support Indian companies which have global aspirations. Our combination of on-shore/off-shore funding helps such companies optimize their funding mix & costs,” said Ashish Sharma, chief executive at InnoVen Capital India.