Exclusive: Freight logistics marketplace Dipper raises angel funding

Delhi-based freight logistics marketplace Dipper, run by Dipper Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has raised funding from an angel investor.

The company will use the funds for marketing initiatives and ramping up operations, besides expanding its teams in Delhi and other regions, Suryansh Jalan, Dipper co-founder and CEO told Techcircle.

It will also use the capital for testing scalable marketing and operational models, he said. Besides, part of the money will be used for hardware and research such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices including sensors, tracking devices and electronic consignment notes, he added.

Jalan, however, declined to reveal the name of the angel investor and only said it raised a little under $50,000 (Rs 33.5 lakh) a few months ago.

Dipper serves the long haul (inter-city) full truckload market. It provides a technology platform, enabled with IoT devices, to large fleet owners, small-to-mid-sized trucking carriers and transporters.

"Vehicle and load owners have a lot of additional issues beyond moving the load, such as vendor discovery, payment processes, resource management and maintenance. We are looking to develop a smart ecosystem that solves these problems and enables users to capitalise on better service and performance," said Jalan.

Dipper was co-founded by Jalan and Ayush Syal in September 2015. Jalan is an alumni of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli and has worked with Caterpillar Inc. in the past as a supply chain and logistics engineer. Syal is an IIT-Guwahati alumnus who was previously working with Amazon as a reverse logistics software development engineer.

Dipper started operations in January 2016, focusing on the national highway from Delhi to Kolkata, and claims to be helping move over 1,500 tonne of material every month. It claims to have about 2,000 verified, GPS-enabled vehicles, and says the number of trucks on its platform is growing 40% month-on-month. Dipper claims to have helped ship consignments of several big companies including Tata Steel, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Procter & Gamble.

The company claims to generate revenue in excess of Rs 50 lakh every month, partly from the monthly fee it charges truck owners for the software-as-a-service (SaaS) product it provides them. Dipper has also struck tie-ups with IOC and some other companies including a few insurers. As of now, the startup is not charging a commission from consignment owners.

It recently started offering its services for trucks plying from northern India to the western and southern parts of the country and plans to cover 30 cities on these routes. In the next few months, the company will also start offering its services for return journeys on these routes. It is also planning to raise an undisclosed amount in pre-series A funding.

Dipper competes with TruckMandi, ReturnTrucks, Rivigo and Blackbuck in the truck aggregation segment.

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