Exclusive: SAIF-backed car services platform Bumper shuts down

Bumper, a mobile marketplace and booking platform for car servicing, has shut down its operations, two of the startup’s co-founders told TechCircle on condition of anonymity.

The firm ceased operating towards the end of last year as it could not raise enough capital and there was not enough traction from users, people aware of the development said.

The exact timeline of events couldn’t be ascertained.

“We worked incredibly hard for our mission and created a lot of firsts for the car repair industry in India, but struggled to add enough value for our partner dealers,” a note on the startup’s website stated.

Email queries sent to Akhil Gupta, co-founder of Bumper, and SAIF Partners did not elicit a response at the time of publishing this report.

Bumper was co-founded in 2015 by Gupta, Rahul Bendre, Ashis Nayak and Kshitij Saxena. In 2013, the co-founders started Autoninja, a business-to-business company in the auto retailing space. Both Bumper and Autoninja are registered under Bengaluru-based Unbox Technologies Pvt Ltd. The new venture is still backed by venture capital firm SAIF Partners. It is now run by three co-founders, except Gupta, who is a programme manager at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. According to his LinkedIn profile, he quit Bumper and Autoninja in November 2017.

In December 2015, Bumper had secured $500,000 (Rs 3.3 crore then) in seed funding from SAIF Partners.

The company helped consumers get accurate quotes for any dent, paint or repair work. Bumper also facilitated booking appointments for its customers in more than 100 workshops in Bengaluru for any car repairs and servicing needs such as engine oil change, AC repair, wheel alignment/balancing, brakes overhaul, advanced car cleaning or washing, etc.

In the past few months, the auto servicing space has seen a number of mergers and acquisitions as well as fundraises.

Last month, TechCircle had reported that car-servicing startup Carcrew Technology Pvt. Ltd, backed by the TVS Group, has raised $2 million (Rs 13 crore) in a fresh pre-Series A round led by a private equity firm.

In February, CarCrew acquired Delhi-based ClickGarage in a stock-and-cash deal.

In March, Bengaluru-based Pitstop, which is backed by Blume Ventures, acquired MotorWhiz, a mobile platform for car service and repair jobs.

In December last year, Noida-based automobile services startup GarageOnRoad raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round.

In the same month, VCCircle had reported that Gurgaon-based automobile servicing platform GoMechanic was going to acquire car servicing and repair startup VOW CarClinic.