On-Demand Driver Aggregator DriveU Raises $3 Mn In Pre-Series A Funding

Bengaluru-based on-demand driver aggregator DriveU has raised $3 Mn in Pre-Series A funding led by Singhal Foundation, an NGO working for education of underprivileged children.

Existing investor Unitus Seed Fund, Geoff Wooley of Patamar Ventures, Rajeev Madhavan of Clear Ventures and a few Silicon Valley-based investors also participated in this round.

Commenting on the funding, Ramprasad Shastry, CEO of DriveU said, “DriveU, having grown at 16% month-over-month since inception has recently witnessed accelerated growth. The funds will allow us to further expand our reach and offerings to our customers.”

The company further plans to expand its existing fleet of 6,000 drivers to 10,000 drivers by the end of 2018.The cross utilisation of drivers between its B2B and B2C lines of businesses optimizes DriveU operations and guarantee higher earnings for its drivers.

On the investment, Dr. Amit Singhal of Singhal Foundation said, “DriveU has demonstrated a deep commitment to enabling good wages for numerous underprivileged individuals. Their business is growing at a strong pace while maintaining positive unit economics, which is key to building a successful company.”

DriveU: 350K Trips, 100K Customers And More

Founded in June 2015 by Ramprasad Shastry, Ashok Shastry, and Amulmeet Singh Chadh, DriveU is owned and operated by Humble Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

A customer can book a driver using the company’s app/website and can 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.

The company claims to have served over 350,000 trips to over 100,000 customers and 40 businesses.

DriveU raised its last round of $1 Mn seed fund from Unitus Seed Fund in February 2016. Later the company also acquired a few startups to strengthen its driver fleet including Gurugram-based on-demand driver service provider CallAtHome, Chennai-based rival DriversKart in an all-equity deal and Mumbai-based Zuver.

As of now, apart from DriveU, there are no major players in the organised segment, however, space is majorly dominated by offline driver agencies and taxi associations posing a threat and a concrete competition to the startup.

However, with the latest funding and its ambitious plans to increase the number of drivers, DriveU is certain to ride for long on its road to success.