Rapido secures $52 mn in Series C funding round

For Bengaluru-based bike taxi platform Rapido, the Covid-19 induced lockdowns meant business losses. However, with the country easing social restrictions, the mobility space has garnered investor attention. On Monday, the company said it has secured $52 million (about Rs 385 crore) in its Series C round of funding that saw participation from new investors including Shell Ventures, Yamaha India, Cred founder Kunal Shah, Spotify India’s CEO Amarjit Singh Batra and Positive Moves Consulting.  

Existing investors - Pawan Munjal of Hero Group, Westbridge, Nexus Venture Partners and Everblue Management also participated in the round. 

Rapido will use the fresh funds to invest in innovations, technology, people, and supply to further boost its growth. 

The rapid scaling of quick commerce and hyperlocal delivery has further driven Rapido’s expansion into on-demand logistics with Rapido Local and Rapido Store, the company said in a statement. 

The company’s auto service launched in 26 cities has also recorded a growth of 4X and overall, Rapido has witnessed a strong recovery of 85% as compared to pre-Covid levels, the statement added. 

The company has so far raised total funding of $130 million in external funding from various investors including Westbridge AIF, Nexus Ventures, Sabre Investment, Skycatcher LLC, Bace Fund, Integrated Growth Capital, among others.  

“From 15 million users in the last two years, we now plan to increase that number to 50 million in the next 18 months and continue providing affordable transportation for the masses,” said Aravind Sanka, co-founder of Rapido. 

Sanka founded Rapido in 2015 along with Rishikesh SR and Pavan Guntupalli. The company recently began 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. 

Rapido is currently present in around 100 cities across the country claiming to have over 15 million customers and more than 1.5 million captains (driver-partners). 

In March, the company partnered with e-mobility startup Zypp to include electric scooters in its fleet.

In the EV mobility space, Rapido competes with players like Vogo, Bounce, Yulu, Drivezy and others.  

The Indian EV market was valued at $5 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach $47 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of above 44% during the forecast period (2021-2026), according to a report published by Telangana based research platform Mordor Intelligence.