Westbridge Capital drives $41 mn funding round in Rapido

Roppen Transportation Services-run Rapido has raised Rs 302.06 crore (about $41.16 million as per current exchange rates) in a Series C funding round from a clutch of investors, led by Westbridge Capital. 

The bike taxi service provider allotted equity shares and compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) worth Rs 1 per share at Rs 16,644.01 and Rs 16,635.01, respectively, as per regulatory filings. 

WestBridge Capital was allocated 1,30,222 CCPS for an investment of Rs 216.75 crore ($29.54 million) through an alternate investment fund. The venture capital firm had earlier invested $54.55 million in the startup in August 2019. 

Returning investor Nexus Ventures participated in the round, and infused Rs 51.30 crore ($6.98 million) for 30,826 Series C CCPS. Everblue invested Rs 14.65 crore ($1.99 million) for 8,807 CCPS shares, Motherson Lease Solutions invested Rs 10 crore ($1.36 million) for 6,008 shares and Pankaj Munjal Family Trust invested Rs 5 crore ($680,655) for 10 equity shares and 2,994 CCPS. 

Other participants in the round included Konark Trust, which invested Rs 2.89 crore (Rs 3.93 lakhs) for 1,737 CCPS; MMPL Trust invested Rs 25.46 lakh ($34,658) for 153 CCPS; and QED Innovation Labs invested Rs 73.23 lakh ($99,688) for 10 equity shares and 430 CCPS. Angel investor Amarjit Singh Batra invested Rs 49.93 lakh ($67,970) for 10 equity shares and 290 CCPS.  

Rapido did not respond to TechCircle’s request for comments. 

The fundraise comes at a time when the mobility industry in India is reeling under the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.  

Founded in 2015 by Aravind Sanka, Rishikesh SR and Pavan Guntupalli, the Bengaluru-based startup had recently begun to expand beyond its bike taxi service offering to include auto rickshaws in several cities. The platform’s app offers services in multiple languages, such as Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and English.  

It had partnered with e-mobility startup Zypp to include electric scooters in its fleet.