Hyundai Leads $14 Mn Funding In Self-Drive Car Rental Startup Revv

Gurugram-based self-drive car rental startup Revv has raised a funding of $14.27 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai.

Existing investors including Edelweiss and Beenext, and some new investors including Dream Incubator, Sunjay Kapoor of Sona BLW and Telama Investment also participated in this funding round.

Founded in 2015 by Anupam Agarwal and Karan Jain, Revv is focused on innovation, continually challenging the status quo in self-drive mobility to create products uniquely suited to the Indian consumer.

Revv has earlier raised more than $9 Mn in funding in two equity funding rounds – August 2015 (Undisclosed) and December 2016 ($9 Mn, Series A). It also raised a Debt funding round from Mahindra Finance in December 2016.

Hyundai And Revv: Where Lies The Synergies?

With the investment in Revv, Hyundai will work to co-develop Revv’s new growth engine by developing innovative mobility services that combine technologies such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence with the sharing economy to transform people’s lives.

Y K Koo, MD, and CEO, Hyundai Motor India, said, “Hyundai Motor India has been growing rapidly with its outstanding performance and has become a strong market leader in India. We are just about to step forward and expand our business into the future mobility field with Revv. Hyundai Motor India will build a prominent system with both ‘Open Innovation’ strategy and India’s fastest growing self-drive car-sharing company, Revv.”

Revv further plans to use the raised funds to expand its product offerings for both long-duration and on-demand use cases, strengthen its technology team, and build brand awareness.

The startup is also looking to increase its geographical footprint to 30 cities during the next 12 months.

Revv: Utilising AI For Building Customer Focussed Approach

At its inception, it introduced the concept of doorstep delivery in car-sharing and followed it up with other innovations such as instant booking.

“During the past three years of our existence, we have stayed focused on delivering great customer experience through a combination of innovative products suited to the varied needs of users. Strong traction with our users and thoughtful use of technology, e.g. an artificial-intelligence based driver assistance system that dramatically improves users’ safety, has helped us scale rapidly,” said Revv founders.

Other players in the Indian Self-driving car rental space include Zoomcar, selfdrive.in, MYLES, drivezy among others.

The market growth potential for mobility services is stronger in India than that of any other global market, expanding to $2 Bn by 2020. Furthermore, people who are heavy users of car-sharing services, comprise 35% of the total population of India.