With Bike Taxis On road, Ola Gets Down To A Bitter Street Fight With Uber

Global taxi major Uber’s Indian rival Ola announced the launch of bike taxis in Bangalore, hours after the former introduced the service on Ola’s home ground.

The two companies announced the launch of on-demand motorbike taxi service in Bangalore today.

Uber sees the bike taxi market as a huge opportunity in India, and plans to tap it as an additional revenue stream, whereas, Ola is of the opinion that bikes are a popular mode of personal transportation and is an easy conveyance in traffic congestion.

Amit Jain, President, Uber India, said, “uberMOTO will offer another affordable mobility option that will help people save time and money while helping cut congestion in our cities over time. In fact, people who own motorbikes/scooters can also become drivers on the platform and recoup the costs of their trips.”

Ola has been operating motorbike taxis for more than a year in Southeast Asia, in association with Grab that operates GrabBikes, while, Uber forayed in the bike market last year in Thailand.

Compare Your uberMOTO with Ola Bike Ride

Two wheeler taxi services is currently has gained a lot of popularity in the countries like New York, London, Paris, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria and Uganda. According to World Moto Inc. – a leading Thailand-based company in the moto-taxi industry – the market for motorcycle taxis is worth $500 Bn.

The bike taxi market in India which started gaining traction last year, has now witnessed emergence of many new players. The startups have not only conceived the idea but have even garnered backing from investors.

Here’s a look at various bike taxi players in the Indian market:

Rideji

Founder(s) Name: Vineet Yadav and Mukesh Rana

Funding: N/A

Gurgaon-based last mile services for instant deliveries, RideJi, has been running pilots and testing the market since December. Currently, it is operational in Gurgaon and Dwarka with 38 riders and plans to introduce another 150 bikes by next month. The startup is already clocking about 380 rides per day.

Baxi

Founder(s) Name: Ashutosh Johri, Manu Rana

Founded In: 2015

Funding: The startup has raised about $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr.) in a seed round funding from friends and family.

The Gurgaon-based Bike Taxi startup is looking to get over 500 Baxis in the area in the next 3 months. It is also looking to penetrate deep in Haryana. After interacting with the Transport department, Johri has estimated that Haryana has over 75,000 Autos and expects that the state can easily accommodate at least 50,000 Baxis.

Besides, Baxi is also planning to raise a sizeable next round of investment in the $25 to $30 Mn range, and has received commitment of 50% of this amount from its existing investors.

Bikxie

Founder(s) Name: Mohit Sharma, Divya Kalia, Dennis Ching

Founded In: 2015

Funding: Raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from an investment banker from the Middle East, and a South India-based businessman.

Gurgaon-based two wheeler taxi service provider, Bikxie, in its first phase of services is operational in DLF Cyber City between 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM. The startup charges INR 10 for the first 2 kilometres and INR 5 for every subsequent kilometre. After expanding its reach to all areas of Gurgaon, the company will look to tap other cities of Haryana.

m-Taxi

Founder(s) Name: Arunabh Madhur

Founded In: 2015

Funding: Raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding led by Mandeep Singh and Jairaj Singh.

m-Taxi is an on-demand app-based 2-Wheeler taxi service that started its services in Gurgaon, plying from metro stations and plans to spread across NCR in its next phase. Pricing is reasonable with an initial charge of INR 25 for the first 3 kilometers and INR 5 for every subsequent kilometer.

Rapido

Founder(s) Name: Rishikesh S R, Pavan Guntupalli, Aravind Sanka

Founded In: 2015

Funding: Raised about $22K in seed round funding

Bangalore-based Rapido is basically a platform where you can book a bike ride through a mobile app. Besides, it also provides an opportunity for people with a two-wheeler (along with the license) to become a rider on the platform and earn some extra money in their spare time.

Hey Bob

Founder(s) Name: Vishal, Girish, Suman and Vinay.

Founded In: 2015

Funding: Bootstrapped

Bangalore-based Hey Bob started with an idea to aim at making the commute in the city more convenient and swift while being the cheapest mode of transport.

The race to get a pillion customer, for Ola and Uber, has just begun. But it has to be seen whether it takes off or not, when there is already a rat race happening for mind space and market share.