Excl: YourCabs.com Receives Angel Funding From Sprism, Others

Bangalore-based startup YourCabs Auto Services Pvt. Ltd which runs YourCabs.com, an online cab booking service provider, has received an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Sprism Investment Pvt Ltd and an unnamed angel investor.

YourCabs was founded by Rajath Kedilaya and Shishira Rudrappa in April, 2011.

"The money will primarily be spent on the technology back-end and on marketing. We will also look for a bigger round of funding by the end of this year," said Kedilaya.

Sprout Capital Advisors, a Bangalore-based boutique advisory firm, mediated in the transaction.

Users can search, select and book cabs (from a range of car options available) either online or through phones. They can book a city taxi (for in-city travel), an airport taxi (pick-up and drop) or outstation cabs (within 2,500 km) in Bangalore and users have the option of paying through cash once the trip ends.

Additionally, the company also offers rental services for luxury cars (Mercedes, BMW and Rolls Royce etc), vans and mini-buses, weddings and corporate hires. The company does not own any of the cabs that are offered on the site and has partnered with vendors for providing the same.

This is similar to few such car rental firms such as Savaari Car Rentals Pvt Ltd, which raised series A funding of Rs 5 crore ($1 million) from Inventus Capital Partners.

According to YourCabs, it has served around 3,500 customers (people who have used the company's service) till now, out of which 25 per cent have become repeat customers. According to Kedilaya, the company's turnover in the one year of its operations has been close to Rs 1 crore and YourCabs is trying to hit 100 bookings on a daily basis by the end of May, 2012.

As of now, the online car rental industry accounts for a very small fraction of the total organised car rental industry (which itself is a small proportion of the industry dominated by small local operators). This means that the potential for growth of the market is huge; hence there have been a number of startups that have come up which offer similar services like TaxiGuide, Savaari, GetMeCab and Olacabs, among others.

"Our focus area for this year is to improve our supply chains and build systems which will automate our entire booking process," said Kedilaya. "By the end of the year we will be looking to expand to other metro cities," he added.