On Demand Driver Aggregator DriveU Pockets Chennai Based Rival DriversKart

Bengaluru-based on-demand driver aggregator DriveU has acquired Chennai-based rival DriversKart in an all equity deal.

Post-acquisition, Vinit Srivastava, CEO at DriversKart will take on an advisory role with DriveU and Kopal Maheshwari, COO at DriversKart will head the B2B arm at DriveU. The move on DriveU’s part comes as it attempts to consolidate position in both B2B and B2C space across cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Pune, and Hyderabad.

Commenting on the development, Ramprasad (Rahm) Shastry, CEO, DriveU said, “With this acquisition, DriveU continues to consolidate its position as India’s premier driver aggregator for both consumers and businesses. Increasingly, we see the sharing economy offering opportunities to leverage our driver services as well. DriveU now plans to expand to over 10,000 drivers and 10 cities by the end of the year.”

DriveU was founded in June 2015 by Ramprasad Shastry (“Rahm”), Ashok Shastry and Amulmeet Singh Chadh. The startup is owned and operated by Humble Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd. A customer can book a driver using the DriveU app/website and also track while the driver is en route to the customer’s pickup location. Once a booking is confirmed, all the necessary information such as driver’s name, picture, rating, phone number, location, distance from customer’s pick up point and estimated time of arrival is provided.

DriveU offers its services to customers at a flat rate of INR 99 per hour locally and INR 999 per 24 hours for outstation travel. It currently claims to have a 20% M-o-M growth.

Earlier in February 2016, DriveU raised $1 Mn in Seed funding from Unitus Seed Fund, to expand its network to 100,000 drivers in 20-30 cities. In May 2016, it acquired Gurugram-based on-demand driver service provider, CallAtHome, for an undisclosed amount.

Vinit Srivastava, CEO, DriversKart said, “With deteriorating quality of service and increasing fares, customers’ preferences are slowly shifting back to using their private cars with on-demand driver services. DriveU’s growth is a testimony to the same. Both, DriveU and DriversKart have maintained price discipline and built sustainable businesses, benefitting customers and significantly increasing drivers’ incomes. With this acquisition, DriveU will now offer a compelling service to the B2B segment as well.”

DriversKart was started in September 2015 by Vinit Srivastava, Kopal Maheshwari, and Saksham Grover. The Chennai-based startup also provides on-demand chauffeur service in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Chennai. It provides chauffeur for the self-drive car rental company for Zoomcar, Justride, among others.

In April 2016, it raised an undisclosed amount in its Pre-Series A round of funding from ah! Ventures and others. In May 2016, it acquired on-demand chauffeur aggregator startup Driven, in an mixed cash and equity deal.

DriverKart and DriveU currently compete with the likes of Zuver and Driver Bulao.