Logistics start-up GoBOLT raises ₹40 cr from Aavishkaar

Mamuni Das Logistics start-up GoBOLT has secured funding of ₹40 crore from Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group’s Aavishkaar Bharat Fund.

GoBOLT will use the money to add trucks owned by small driver-owners. It will also expand trucking operations to the East and North-East, apart from consolidating its presence in the West, North and South. Additionally, it will increase its corporate team size by 2.5 times and increase the drivers on its rolls by three times over the next two years.

Aavishkaar-Intellecap, which is focussed on Asia and Africa, manages assets of over $650 million, according to the company’s website.

GoBOLT was started by Parag Aggarwal, Naitik Baghla and Sumit Sharma in 2015. Singapore-based BHIP, which had invested two years ago in the company in a pre-Series A funding round, is staying on.

“We have a corporate team of about 40, and over 50 drivers on our rolls. Over the next two years, we aim to have a corporate team of 100, and three times the number of drivers,” Sharma told BusinessLine . “We are targeting very small vendors now, and get smaller truck owners and/or drivers, as they are the ones who are at the helm of affairs on the roads.”

Longer run

“Small driver-owners usually get business for 7,000-8,000 km a month. Enrolling with us will enable them to run trucks for 13,000-14,000 km, helping them improve their livelihood and repay their loans. They can hire more people to run the trucks if required, creating employment,” he added.

GoBOLT aims to increase its truck fleet of owned and dedicated lease by over three times to 500-plus in two years from the current 150. It has 400 vendors and 10,000 registered trucks on its marketplace; the latter is expected to treble to 30,000.

The company, present in 100 cities now, aims to increase the routes within five-six cities, and emerge stronger in cities in Karnataka. It aims to expand in the East over next one year, and subsequently North East.

GoBOLT will focus on getting more business from the e-commerce sector, which is seeing the sharpest growth, while also continuing to focus on white goods. Also, the kind of trucks it will seek as it expands will be different, as GoBOLT aims to target customers with heavier cargo. At present, it moves lighter cargo in containers in single axle trucks, for e-commerce and consumer durable (ACs and washing machines) clients, like flipkart, Daikin India and Kellogg's. As it wooes customers with heavier cargo – like industrial segment, spare parts, project cargo – it will increase multi-axle trucks, which are trucks that can handle similar sized containers as handled now with heavier load.

GoBOLT will also invest further in technology. For its new trucks, it will look at smart trucks with sensors for fuel and load, that will aid preventive maintenance — which are termed Internet of Things. It will also retrofit its existing fleet with such sensors. Moreover, its in-house technology team will invest in machine learning and artificial intelligence for route mapping, among others.

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