After Ola, TaxiForSure rolls out on-demand auto rickshaw hailing service in Bangalore

Following in the footsteps of its competitor Olacabs, online taxi booking venture TaxiForSure.com, run by Bangalore-based Serendipity Infolabs Pvt Ltd, has also launched an on-demand auto rickshaw hailing service in Bangalore. The service has been launched in association with Three Wheels United, a city-based social enterprise that works closely with auto drivers.

The service can be accessed on the company's mobile website & apps, and commuters can use it by clicking on the auto icon, followed by 'pick now' button. Commuters will need to pay by meter as per government mandated fares. In addition, they will also need to pay a convenience fee of Rs 10 that is not part of the meter fare.

In the first phase, the company plans to launch the service with 500 autos, and soon increase this number to over 1,000 autos in Bangalore.

The startup was founded in June 2011 by Raghunandan G and Aprameya Radhakrishna — both engineering graduates from National Institute of Technology Karnataka (Surathkal). The duo also holds management degrees from IIM Ahmedabad.

So far, TaxiForSure has been acting as an aggregator of car/cab rentals. Its services include local point-to-point pick-up and drop, airport transfer, local packages (for four or eight hours) and outstation packages. Besides regular rentals, it also provides luxury cars like Rolls Royce Phantom, Hummer, Limousine, Jaguar, Audi A6, BMW 7 Series, and Mercedes S class.

The company claims it does 35,000-40,000 transactions per day. It currently operates in 37 Indian cities and plans to cross 100 cities by June this year. It is also in advanced talks with foreign PE investors and hedge funds to raise more than $100 million in its Series D round of funding.

In this space, besides Olacabs, TaxiForSure will also compete with mGaadi, a mobile-based auto rickshaw booking service in Bangalore. In May 2014, seed-stage impact investment firm Unitus Seed Fund had led an equity investment in Bangalore-based India Drivers Network Services Pvt Ltd, the company behind mGaadi.