Trifecta Capital Makes Second Bet In Shuttl With $1.4 Mn Funding

Bus shuttle service startup Shuttl has raised $1.4 Mn (INR 10 Cr) in a Series B debenture round from its existing investor, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund, Trifecta Capital, according to the company’s filing with the Registrar of Company (RoC), accessed by Inc42.

This takes Trifecta’s total investment to $2.3 Mn in the Gurugram-headquartered startup, Shuttl. In July 2018, the company had received a $11 Mn Series B funding from Amazon’s Alexa Fund and Dentsu Ventures, along with existing investors.

The startup which counts Sequoia Capital India, Times Internet, Lightspeed Venture Partners, AdvantEdge Partners as its investors, has so far raised the funding of over $36.6 Mn. In the latest investment, Trifecta Capital has been issued 591 shares in Shuttl per the company’s RoC filing.

Inc42 has written to Shuttl to know its plans with the latest fund raise but was yet to receive a response till the time of publication.

Founded in April 2015 by Amit Singh and Deepanshu Malviya, Shuttl provides an app-based office shuttle service across major cities, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur. The company claimed to be providing 45K rides daily, with 800 buses, as of July 2018.

The startup is one of such early adopters of technology in the country which has introduced a sound wave-based boarding for its commuters. It has also launched safety features for its commuters, named Shuttl SAFE (Secure Anxiety Free Experience), keeping in mind the needs of urban women commuters, and ensure their safety during the travel with Shuttl.

It competes with bus shuttle service providers such as Bengaluru’s ZipGo, Mumbai’s Cityflo, among others. In September last year, drivers associated with Hyderabad’s minibus service provider Commut joined Shuttl after it was acquired by the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based cab hailing firm Careem.

Careem’s technology acquisition of Commut was part of company’s plan to roll out its cab service across the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (MENAP), but it excludes India.

India’s transport tech is one of such sectors that has started gathering huge interest from investors. The country has multiple startups, 513 to be precise as of November 2018 according to Inc42’s — The State of The Indian Startup Ecosystem  2018 — report, with offerings ranging from ride-hailing (four-and two-wheelers), self-drive, and inter-city solutions to electric vehicles.

The report also suggests India’s transport tech segment  to have attracted $3.3 Bn from 2014 to 2018 across 135 deals.