Bus aggregator Shuttl hires former Airtel exec Rangachari

Gurgaon-based bus aggregation startup Shuttl has appointed former Bharti Airtel executive Venkatesh Rangachari as its head of growth.

Rangachari will report to Shuttl's CEO Amit Singh, the company said in a statement.

An IIM-Bangalore alumnus, Rangachari was the COO, NCR circle for Bharti Airtel before joining Shuttl. He has worked with Aircel and Michelin in the past.

"His more than a decade of experience on both operational and marketing sides in his past roles will be valuable for us as we continue on our hyper growth trajectory," Singh said.

Shuttl, owned by Super Highway Labs Pvt Ltd, was founded by Singh and Deepanshu Malviya in April this year. It offers economic shuttl services to commuters across 20 routes in Delhi-NCR. Commuters can register on the Shuttl app, choose pickup and destination locations and view bus timings on the network. Users can then book seats by cashless payment on the app via their accounts. Its buses are air-conditioned and GPS-enabled.

The company claims to be averaging around 13,000 rides per day across Delhi-NCR. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Shuttle hopes to do 100,000 rides a day within the next few months.

Bus pooling for daily commute or intra-city transport is a relatively new concept in India. A slew of tech startups have started aggregating buses/mini-buses in recent months. These ventures are asset light and do not own vehicles themselves but come across as a booking platform similar to taxi hailing apps Ola and Uber. There is tremendous investor interest in this space.

Mumbai-based Cityflo, a bus hailing app that aggregates private mini-buses for daily commuters, received $750,000 (Rs 4.9 crore) in seed funding from IDG Ventures and an unnamed investor early this month. It has 60 buses on its platform in Mumbai providing services in 10 routes within the city.

Mumbai-based rBus secured seed funding from People Group founder Anupam Mittal and Anand Lunia's India Quotient in August. The co-founders of TalentPad.com, a technology recruitment marketplace that shut shop in August, have started Trevo, a bus pooling app for intra-city travel.

Bangalore-based ZipGo app aggregates AC bus services and offers services for just Rs 29  in the city.

Cab aggregator Ola recently entered the bus transport segment by launching shuttle services in Mumbai and Gurgaon.