Two-wheeler taxi service Baxi raises seed funding worth $1.4M

Yet-to-be-launched startup Baxi, which runs a bike-ride hailing service, has raised Rs 10 crore (around $1.4 million) in a seed investment round from a clutch of HNIs.

Manish Kheterpal, managing partner of private equity firm WaterBridge Ventures; Alok Mittal, former India head of venture capital firm Canaan Partners and founder of technology startup Indifi Technologies; and Puneet Dalmia, managing director of cement major Dalmia Bharat Group, participated in this round.

The news was first reported by The Economic Times.

"There is a huge market opportunity in last-mile transportation. The value proposition, compared with existing alternatives, is amazing. The (Baxi) strategy includes access within five minutes in every city it launches," said Kheterpal in the report.

The startup was founded a year ago by IIT-Delhi alumni Ashutosh Johri and Manu Rana. Johri has earlier worked with Cisco, Mara Ison Technologies, AT Kearney and IBM. Rana, who graduated from University of Toledo, has previously worked with Bigtree Entertainment, IgniteWorld and Match.com.

"We raised a big round because we are looking to consolidate our position right from the outset. In such instances, one can't afford to start small," Johri told ET. This is one of the largest seed rounds raised by a startup in India.

According to the report, the company will launch the service with 23 motorcycles, and will ramp up to 150 by early next year.

The bike taxi space also saw another player M-Taxi receiving angel funding recently to expand its operations in the NCR region