Yolobus raises $3.3 mn in Series A led by Nexus Partners

Gurugram-based startup Yolobus has raised a $3.3 million in its Series A round of funding led by Nexus Venture Partners.

Mumbai-based venture capital firm India Quotient (IQ) also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

The investment brings Yolobus’ total funding to $4.1 million.

As part of the deal, Suvir Sujan, managing director of Nexus Venture Partners and Anand Lunia, general partner at India Quotient will join Yolobus’ board.

Yolobus will use the fresh funds for its technology, customer and crew safety and sanitisation and territory expansion plans, the company said.

“As an industry we’re just scratching the surface of how India’s bus services can be when married to our Uber offerings of safety, sanitisation and comfort,” Shailesh Gupta, Yolobus founder & CEO said.

Founded in 2019 by Gupta, Danish Chopra and Mukul Shah, Yolobus is an intercity full-Stack bus service.

The company is introducing a sanitization tunnel for each passenger before onboarding in the pandemic, it said in the statement.

“Intercity ground mobility in India hasn’t kept up with the needs of the discerning urban traveller and is ripe for disruption,” Suvir Sujan, managing director at Nexus Venture Partners said.

Another startup operating in the same space is Travelyaari, which raised $7 million in a Series B funding round from investors such as Gujarat Venture Finance and Bennett Coleman & Co (BCCL) in August 2016.

Travel platforms such as Ibibo, MakeMyTrip, and Paytm also offer their own bus ticketing services.

Intra-city commute model has also garnered some investor interest lately. Gurugram-based Shuttl was recently in talks to raise $8.1 million as part of its Series C funding round from SIG Global India Fund I, LLP.