K Ganesh, former Myntra CEO back scooter sharing platform Vogo

Scooter-sharing platform Vogo Automotive Pvt. Ltd said it has raised an undisclosed amount within a fortnight of venture debt firm Alteria Capital investing Rs 25 crore ($3.6 million), a move tightening the two-way race with Bounce which announced a big Series C funding round a day before. 

The undisclosed amount was raised from former Myntra chief executive Ananth Narayanan, serial entrepreneurs K Ganesh and Srini Anumolu, and SVG Media founder Manish Vij. Alteria Capital had first invested in scooter rental platform Vogo in October last year. 

“Simple yet ingenious solutions like one-touch keyless access to the scooter greatly enhance the customer’s experience,” Ganesh said on Vogo.

Vogo was founded in 2016 by Anand Ayyadurai, Padmanabhan Balakrishnan and Sanchit Mittal. It allows customers to rent scooters for their commute via its app.

Bengaluru-headquartered Vogo is operational across 500 points in cities including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mysore and Manipal. Customers have completed over three million trips using the Vogo platform.

Earlier this month, the company raised Rs 25 crore ($3.6 million) in venture debt from Alteria Capital.

In January, it raised Rs 63 crore in a fresh funding round from existing investors Kalaari Capital, Matrix Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners and Hero group promoter Pawan Munjal’s family trust.

A little before that, ride-hailing unicorn Ola had committed $100 million in Vogo.

In April 2019, the company also strengthened its leadership team by appointing Sharath Parameswaran as vice-president of growth and Prasanth Prabhakar as vice-president of operations.

Vogo competes directly with dockless bike rental platform Bounce, which is backed by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal and B Capital Group, the venture capital firm started by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Yesterday, TechCircle reported that Bounce has raised around $72 million (Rs 504 crore) in its Series C round of funding. The investment was led by B Capital and New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital. The following also contributed to the round: Accel, Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India), Maverick Ventures, Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Capital India and Qualcomm Ventures.

Prior to this Series C round, Bounce had raised Rs 20.8 crore from venture debt firm InnoVen Capital in April. This was Bounce’s second round of funding from InnoVen. The company had also raised Rs 15 crore from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal through BAC Acquisitions Pvt. Ltd earlier this year, according to regulatory filings.