Roadside Assistance Startup ReadyAssist Secures $5 Mn Funding To Build For Retail Customers

Roadside assistance startup ReadyAssist has raised $5 Mn in its pre-Series A funding round led by Howen International Fund. The startup had last raised $1 Mn in its seed round from angel investors in January 2021.

ReadAssist will use the fresh funds to develop its product for B2C customers via a subscription model. Till now, ReadyAssist worked with B2B customers for roadside assistance.

Further, the startup will build support for electric vehicles (EVs) with the funding. In particular, ReadyAssist will train its service providers to service EVs across the top 50 cities in the geographies it services. It also aims to expand across India and provide 24/7 roadside support.

Founded in 2018 by Vimal Singh SV, ReadyAssist provides roadside assistance to users. The startup works with service providers to help out users who have a vehicle failure on the road.

It provides services such as battery jumpstart, fuel delivery, key unlocking, towing, flat tire repair and starting issues. It also provides doorstep full-bike service. According to ReadyAssist’s website, the startup has 5,000+ service providers and covers 16,650 pin codes across the country.

ReadyAssist has a base of more than 6 Lakh customers, with 50% of them being cars and 10% EVs. The startup claims to have serviced over 1 Mn vehicles since 2018. It competes with IIT Delhi-backed iSAFE Assist, Roda Assistance, Pitstop and GoMechanic in this segment.

Vimal Singh SV, founder and CEO of ReadyAssist, said, “This funding will help us add wings to our service and ensure that India witnesses uncompromised 24/7 roadside assistance from ReadyAssist across the country in the months and years ahead. Support to the Indian EV ecosystem and adding speed to our services will have our special focus.”

Vishal Rana, director of Howen International, said, “We are excited to move this collaboration forward and be the partner that would support ReadyAssist scale across geographies.”

According to a report by Custom Market Insights, the global roadside assistance market was valued at $23.6 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach $34.8 Bn by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 4.1%. 

Roadside assistance and automotive services startups in India raised $73 Mn across 17 deals between 2014 and Q3 2022, according to Inc42 data. GoMechanic alone accounted for $62 Mn, or 85% of the total funding amount in the segment.