Bike Sharing Startup Bounce Raises $7 Mn Led By Chiratae

Bounce, a bike and scooter rental platform has raised over $7 Mn in a Series B round. Chiratae Ventures, Accel India, Sequoia India and On Mauritius participated in the Series B round.

Here’s a breakdown of the latest funding round according to a RoC filing seen by Inc42

• IDG Ventures India Fund III LLC invested in 115.73K shares worth INR 20.99 Cr ($2.94 Mn)
• Vistra ITCL (India) Ltd  invested in 77.14K shares worth INR 14 Cr ($1.96 Mn)
• Accel India V (Mauritius Ltd) invested 38.59K shares worth INR 7 Cr ($980.8K)
• SCI Investments invested  38.59K shares worth INR 7 Cr ($980.8K)
• On Mauritius invested 7,951 shares worth INR 1.5 Cr ($210.17K)

According to the filing with MCA, the company raised the funds on December 27, 2018.

The fresh capital infusion comes after Sequoia and Accel led $12.2 Mn (INR 84.64 Cr) Series A funding round in August last year. After the Series A round, the company also rebranded itself from Metro Bike to Bounce.

Last month, a TechCircle report claimed that Bounce is in talks to raise a bigger round of about $50 Mn.

The company had acquired assets of Alibaba-backed dockless bicycle sharing platform Ofo that had shut down its operations in July 2018 in India. The move signals that the company may foray into the bicycle sharing segment soon.

Founded as Wicked Rides in 2014 by Vivekananda HR, Varun Agni and Anil G, the company offers premium motorcycles for rent under the Wicked Rides banner, and commuter bikes under the Bounce brand.

The company aims to solve last-mile connectivity problem and claims to have a fleet of more than 1,000 bikes. It allows users to pick up scooters from locations closest to them and drop them at end-trip spots, priced by the hour and distance.

Bounce currently offers its services in select areas of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mysore, Jaipur, Udaipur, Belagavi, Manipal, Jaisalmer, Gokarna, and some other cities. The startup has tied up with the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) and provides bike rentals at metro stations across the city. It plans to work on improving its delivery models and expand to other major cities across India by 2020.

Bounce aims to add 30K scooters by the end of current calendar year.

Bounce Earnings For FY18

Apart from funding, the bike/scooter sharing platform also filed its financial report for the year ending on March 31, 2018.

The company’s revenue grew by 24.4% to INR 5.44 Cr ($762.8K) in FY18. During the same period, its losses almost doubled to INR 7.02 Cr  ($980.8K) while the expenses saw an increase of 62.5% to INR 12.47 Cr ($1.74 Mn)

In bike/scooter rental segment, Bounce competes with Vogo, Tazzo Bikes, RentOnGo, ZipHop, ONN Bikes, among several others.