Did you remember, or do you have any experience with house shifts? While shifting your house, there are several challenges that we face; it starts with packaging all of them, and then carrying all of them is the next big hurdle. But our father used to worry about one big thing, which is transportation.
Even though it is just a few kilometres away, truck or auto drivers used to charge sky-high prices for moving all our things to a new place. Prices are something that’s out of our control, and then comes timely booking; if we need it immediately again, they will charge you a bomb. Sometimes even if you are ready to pay more, they are not available.
Not just one, but multiple factors and problems we used to face earlier. When it comes to small business owners and enterprises, it is a nightmare. Whatever the business they do, the margins will be impacted because of the high logistics costs. Sometimes, they get the late deliveries, and if they want them on time, they need to spend more.
So, overall, not just to one particular segment but to almost every single category of people, logistics is a concern. Exactly to solve these problems, a startup was born in 2014, which turned into a unicorn by solving the intracity logistics. The startup we are referring to is Porter.
Porter was founded in 2014 by IIT-Kharagpur alumni Pranav Goel, Uttam Digga, and Vikas Choudhary after seeing how fragmented and inefficient city freight was for small businesses and owner-drivers. Porter is a tech-enabled marketplace for intra-city and short-haul logistics across trucks, EVs, and two-wheelers, serving individuals, SMBs, and enterprises in 20+ Indian cities.
A turning point in Porter’s early journey came in 2018, when the Mahindra Group, which is a giant in India’s mobility and logistics ecosystem, decided to merge its own digital logistics platform, SmartShift, with Porter. SmartShift had been Mahindra’s attempt at solving the same intra-city freight problem, but despite its brand muscle, it hadn’t scaled the way the group had hoped.
By combining forces, Mahindra essentially acknowledged that Porter’s tech-first, marketplace-driven approach was superior in cracking the complex, fragmented urban trucking space. Alongside the merger, Mahindra invested ₹65 crore, giving Porter not just capital but also the credibility of an established conglomerate.
This was a breakthrough, and the company scaled up fast and quickly. They generate revenue in different ways. Porter runs on a very straightforward model: every time a delivery is completed through its platform, the company earns a commission from the driver partner’s earnings. This commission can go up to 30% per trip, depending on the city and vehicle type.
The fare itself is calculated based on a few simple factors, such as distance, type of vehicle, type and size of goods, and extra services like loading and unloading. But that’s not the only way Porter earns. Over time, the company has added other revenue streams: a vehicle rental service where customers can book vehicles for a few hours or an entire day, and next, courier pickups, where, through tie-ups with channel partners, Porter also facilitates parcel deliveries and courier pickups, adding another layer to its income.
If it is clear, before diving into financials, let’s understand why it worked so well. One of the major reasons is logistics. India’s logistics has always been a pain point, both for individuals and businesses. On average, logistics costs here make up about 14% of the GDP, which is significantly higher than global benchmarks like China (10%) and Vietnam (8%). These higher costs are not just numbers on paper, but they directly eat into business margins and make products more expensive for end consumers.
The problem lies in the fragmented system. This inefficiency created a vicious cycle: drivers weren’t earning enough, businesses were paying too much, and customers were frustrated. So, when Porter tried to solve the problem, they found the product-market fit and worked.
Next comes the short-haul offering. Most competitors are concentrating on long-haul services. Porter just focused on intra-city, which is high-frequency, high-friction, and highly fragmented.
Another big factor behind Porter’s rise is its diversified services. Whether it’s bulk shipments, business couriers, cargo transport, or last-mile delivery, Porter has built solutions for almost every logistics need inside a city. This flexibility means that a small kirana store, an e-commerce startup, or even a large enterprise can all rely on the same platform for their daily operations.
Their expanding footprint across 20+ cities shows us volumes about the trust they’ve earned. What started as a single-city operation has now grown into a nationwide network powered by over 7.5 lakh driver partners and a community that forms the backbone of Porter’s ecosystem.
This all resulted in the financial performance of the company, wherein they generated about INR 4,300 crore in FY25. It is a huge jump in revenue compared to INR 2,734 crore in FY 24. Recently, Porter raised $200 million in its Series F funding round, led by Kedaara Capital and Wellington Management, which pushed the company’s valuation to around $1.1–$1.2 billion, officially marking its entry into the unicorn club.
This is a porter that started small and scaled up to become a billion-dollar startup by solving the logistics problem. This again proves that solving a simple problem that we face daily helps us to build a billion-dollar company.
Also Read: The Untold Story of SoftBank’s Role in India’s Startup Boom
