Car rental startup Revv raises $9 mn in institutional funding

The company did not reveal how much it raised in equity but said it was a Series A round, led by Edelweiss Private Equity.

The undisclosed debt funding was raised from financing partners Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and car leasing partner LeasePlan India.

With the acquired funds, the on-demand car rental startup plans to launch its services in newer markets, create new products to address untapped and potentially mainstream use-cases, and to build technological capabilities on two-sided sharing platforms, predictive inventory management, dynamic pricing and driver behaviour monitoring.

"The on-demand economy will challenge the traditional asset ownership models, which bred inefficiency on both the supply and demand side. A vast majority of the two crore cars on Indian roads are under-utilised, while the demand for vehicles continues to be strong," Pranav Parikh, managing partner, Edelweiss Private Equity Fund.

Founded by ex-McKinsey executives Anupam Agarwal and Karan Jain in July last year, Revv started out with car-sharing as its first product, and has spent the last 15 months in establishing it as a mainstream mobility option, while building a profitable and scalable business model around it.

In August last year, the company had raised angel investment from Gautam Kumra (recently elected India MD of McKinsey & Company), Rajat Dhawan (mentor to McKinsey's automotive practice) and Ananth Narayanan (CEO of Myntra).

"We have witnessed a continuous uptick in the acceptance of our first product (car-sharing), with very encouraging repeat rates. More than half of our revenues come from repeat users. Users are realising that a combination of hired mobility options can be a true and practical alternative to owning a car," said Agarwal.

In a similar deal, Zoomcar India Pvt. Ltd, which operates a self-drive car rental service, said on Thursday it has raised $24 million (Rs 161 crore) in a Series B round of funding led by US auto giant Ford Motor Company's newly created 'smart mobility' unit in August.

Prior to that, Voler Car Pvt. Ltd, the company which operates self-drive car rental service Voler Cars, raised an undisclosed amount in funding led by a family office of Kanodias and former UTV and Unilazer executive Amit Banka in June.

Other players in the market that offer similar services include Myles, which is owned by Carzonrent, and JustRide.