India’s logistics machine is damaged, however Vahak thinks it will possibly repair it – and the start-up expertise corporate has nowadays unveiled a $14 million sequence A investment spherical it hopes will lend a hand it make just right on that promise.
India’s delivery sector is value $200 billion, indicate Vahak founders Karan Shaha and Vikas Chandrawat, however is suffering below the burden of antiquated methods and old-fashioned applied sciences. When a manufacturing unit proprietor, say, desires to send its items from A to B, it usually engages certainly one of tens of millions of small and medium enterprises within the delivery sector to regulate the paintings; this SME should then telephone spherical dozens of lorry house owners and drivers – 70% of India’s vehicles are owned through small house owners who steadily power too – to seek out any individual who can do the task at a aggressive payment. The method takes days slightly than hours.
Shaha noticed this downside first hand throughout the enjoy of members of the family within the commercial sector who had been suffering to transport their items. So in 2016, he teamed up with Chandrawat, an previous college good friend, to release a brand new delivery industry. “We did that for 2 years, throughout which period we met greater than 1,000 SMEs and lorry house owners,” Shaha recollects. “We were given an overly transparent view of the demanding situations they had been dealing with, now not least as a result of we had been struggling with the similar issues.”
That have triggered the release of Vahak in 2019. Somewhat than attempt to give a boost to issues with but any other delivery industry, the founders reasoned, why now not focal point on a technology-enabled answer. To that finish, Vahak is a free-to-use on-line market that connects delivery SMEs with lorry drivers and house owners.
The theory is that each and every time the SME will get an order from a buyer desiring transport, it posts the main points at the platform. Lorry drivers straight away see what is needed and will submit their availability, at the side of a value for the task. “We accelerate the method of discovering a motive force dramatically,” explains Shaha. “The burden is broadcast instantly to each and every motive force at the platform – you’re achieving extra drivers, extra temporarily, and getting pageant to provide the most productive payment.”
The proposition works neatly for all sides. SMEs get to offer their shoppers – the shippers – with a much more environment friendly and price-competitive provider. They are able to additionally use Vahak to construct their credibility with shoppers, expanding emblem accept as true with through showcasing their monitor information at the platform.
As for lorry house owners and drivers, they get get entry to to extra paintings alternatives and now not need to pay commissions to agents status between them and the SMEs. Shaha estimates that the place some drivers had been up to now most effective discovering paintings for 12-15 days in a given month, that has risen to extra like 25-26 when they’ve moved directly to Vahak. “Our method is all about empowering drivers to reside higher lives,” Shaha provides.
Vahak founders Karan Shaha and Vikas Chandrawat
The theory seems to have captured the creativeness of each delivery SMEs and lorry house owners. Thus far, Vahak has signed up 1.5 million customers spanning all sides of the platform – and it has now set itself a goal of having to ten million customers over the following 365 days. That might constitute a ten% percentage of India’s logistics marketplace.
Within the intervening time, Shaha and Chandrawat additionally need to figure out how one can flip a make the most of the industry. The free-to-use industry style is aimed toward getting mass adoption – that delivers a community impact, Shaha issues out, during which customers get ever extra have the benefit of the platform. In time, alternatively, the founders see Vahak as changing into extra of a one-stop-shop for the logistics sector, providing products and services similar to gasoline, insurance coverage, GPS applied sciences and spare portions purchases. Those value-added products and services will allow the industry to monetise – and construct on applied sciences such because the app-based bills provider Vahak has already used.
Traders are purchasing into that imaginative and prescient. The $14 million Collection A spherical introduced nowadays brings the overall funding raised through the corporate since its release to $20.3 million. This newest fund-raising is led through Nexus Mission Companions, with participation from Foundamental, iSeed Ventures, Leo Capital, RTP World and Titan Capital.
“In spite of posting just right expansion, the Indian logistics marketplace continues to stand positive demanding situations because of the loss of expertise integration,” argues Sameer Brij Verma, managing director of Nexus. “Platforms similar to Vahak at the moment are bringing in regards to the virtual transformation of this sector through offering tech-driven options and products and services to assist tens of millions of truck drivers and shippers within the nation.”
Vahak says the investment can be used to double down on its buyer acquisition technique, accelerating customers’ adoption of its platform. The industry additionally plans additional funding in its expertise infrastructure because it builds out further value-added products and services.
