rBus raises seed funding from India Quotient, others

Mumbai-based rBus, which provides technology-enabled AC bus services, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from India Quotient, People Group founder Anupam Mittal and other investors, as per a press statement.

Raftaar Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owns and runs rBus, will use the money to expand operations and strengthen its technology platform.

"Usually we have teams that look at the US and China and copy something that's raised a lot of money. But here we could feel a Mumbaikar trying to solve the problem of Mumbai. This service has a scope bigger than even Mumbai Metro. It's going to need very heavy lifting, and we have a very strong team," said Anand Lunia, founder at India Quotient, an early stage investor. India Quotient typically comes in as a seed or pre-Series A stage investor in tech startups.

With Wi-Fi, app-enabled payments and live tracking of buses, rBus claims that it provides a commute experience akin to having one's own car at a fraction of the price.

"Urban mobility is a massive problem and consequently a massive opportunity in India. Public transport alone cannot solve many of the challenges and so needs to be complemented with innovative solutions like cabs on demand and now buses on demand," Mittal said.

Founded by Siddharth Sharma, Anshul Khandelwal and Vivek Choksi, rBus currently offers 40 daily trips, catering to over 500 customers. Since it started operations earlier this year, rBus has expanded to 11 routes and is adding new ones every week, as per the statement.

Mittal, who is an active angel investor in several startups, started Shaadi.com in 1996 before forming People Group to look at other opportunities in technology space. Mittal has made angel investments in over 60 startups.