Vahak is just not solely an open market for truckers, but it surely additionally offers drivers with providers like healthcare and discounted gasoline playing cards. The Bangalore-based firm introduced at the moment it has raised a $14 million Collection A. The spherical was led by Nexus Companions, with participation from Foundamental, iSeed Ventures, Leo Capital, RTP International and Tital Capital.
This brings Vahak’s complete raised up to now to $20.3 million because it was based in 2020 by Karan Shaha and Vikas Chandrawat. The 2 met whereas they had been finding out mechanical engineering at IIT Kanpur. Shaha says they determined to discovered Vahak was due to the issues he noticed considered one of his family members, who owns a manufacturing facility, take care of.
“The issue was associated to truck reserving,” Shaha says. “Irregular freight, lack of communication channels, mistrust and an absence of visibility had been evident. On digging deeper, we understood that it was an enormous nationwide drawback that wanted enchancment instantly.”
Vahak initially offered transportation providers in Raipur, Shaha’s house city. After working for greater than two years, “we understood the issues a transporter confronted on a day-to-day foundation,” he stated. “Irregular earnings, insane work hours, lack of correct healthcare, to call a couple of.” Consequently, Vahak pivoted to a pure-tech mannequin in 2019 and launched the subsequent 12 months.
Vahak connects individuals who have items to ship with truckers and allows funds by the apps. The corporate says that Vahak Funds prevents fraud by securing transactions, letting drivers receives a commission extra rapidly and allows fast refunds if mandatory.
The corporate’s purpose is to scale its operations to 10% of India’s logistics markets and develop from 1.5 million customers at present to 10 million inside a 12 months.
Shaha says that the Indian transport business is “extremely unorganized and fragmented,” regardless of being value $200 billion. About 70% of vehicles are owned by one individual, who additionally drives the truck. To be able to safe bookings, they often depend on telephone calls.
“This creates silos the place private community of connections are the one strategy to know somebody’s credibility,” stated Shaha, including that it often takes lorry house owners two to a few days to search out their subsequent order. Shaha says that truckers who be part of the platform can function for 25 to 26 days a month, as an alternative of 12 to fifteen days, as a result of bookings occur quicker.
Vahak’s app additionally provides drivers physician consultations by telehealth firm Medibuddy, well being and transit info and gasoline playing cards that can be utilized to purchase gasoline at discounted charges. Shaha stated these options had been added as a result of India’s trucking business “lacks an environment friendly ecosystem to help the lifetime of truck drivers and small house owners.
The corporate is at present in pre-revenue stage, however Shaha stated that sooner or later it’ll monetize by value-added providers, like escrow, insurance coverage, gasoline, GPS and direct commissions on transactions.
