B Capital, Falcon Edge lead $72 mn bet on scooter-sharing platform Bounce

Bounce, a dockless scooter- and bicycle-sharing platform, has raised around $72 million (Rs 504 crore) in its Series C round of funding.

The Bengaluru-based startup said in a statement that the investment was led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s venture capital firm B Capital and New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital.

The Indian and US arms of VC firm Accel, Chiratae Ventures, Maverick Ventures, Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Capital India and Qualcomm Ventures also contributed.

“This round of funding will help accelerate our expansion nationally across various cities,” said Bounce co-founder and chief executive Vivekananda HR.

Bounce, which is operated by Wickedride Adventure Services Pvt. Ltd, said it will also allocate capital for strengthening its technological infrastructure.

The latest round takes the total capital raised by Bounce to $92 million, the startup said.

Also in 2019, Bounce secured $6 million in debt from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal and $3 million in venture debt from InnoVen Capital in March and April, respectively.

The company said it had earlier raised $8 million in a Series B round that was led by Chiratae Ventures with participation from Accel Partners India, Omidyar Network, Sequoia and Qualcomm Ventures.

In August last year, Accel, Omidyar and Sequoia had invested $10.2 million in its Series A round. Bounce had raised $2 million in its pre-Series A funding round.

Bounce

The venture was founded in 2014 by V.ivekanand Hallekere along with Varun Agni and Anil G

The company initially offered motorbikes and scooters on a rental basis primarily to urban commuters. It tweaked its business model to a dockless scooter-sharing service but has continued to run its rental business. 

With the acquisition of bicycle-sharing unicorn Ofo’s India assets, Bounce also offers dockless bicycle sharing.

Bounce said it has deployed a fleet of over 5,000 keyless scooters in Bengaluru and has crossed 2 million rides. 

Besides Bounce, the company also operates WickedRide, a premium motorbike rental platform that includes brands such as Harley Davidson, Benelli, Royal Enfield, Kawasaki, Triumph, Ducati, KTM and Americana.

In March this year, it roped in former Groupon executive Bharath Devanathan as senior vice-president of growth and electric vehicles.

Among Bounce’s chief competitors is Vogo, which has also attracted a number of investors.

Earlier this month, venture debt firm Alteria Capital invested another Rs 25 crore in Vogo after first investing in the scooter rental platform in October last year.

Vogo, which was founded in 2016, is operational across 500 locations in five cities in India, it said recently. Customers have completed over 3 million trips using Vogo platform, it claimed.

In December last year, ride-hailing firm Ola said it would invest $100 million in Vogo. The startup’s fleet of two-wheelers was to be available for Ola’s 150-million customers.

Around this time, the company had also raised around $9 million from Kalaari Capital, Matrix Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners and Hero Group promoter Pawan Munjal’s family trust.