Yulu Raises $3.9 Mn Funding Led By Rocketship VC

Bengaluru-based electric vehicle provider Yulu has raised INR 30 Cr ($3.9 Mn) in a fresh equity funding round led by US-based VC firm Rocketship and existing investors.

The company will use the funding to strengthen the mobility platform, technology solutions, and enable rapid expansion. The company had earlier raised $20 Mn funding from investors including Blume Ventures, 3One4 Capital, Wavemaker Partners, Incubate Fund India, Grey Cell Ventures and others.

Yulu, founded in 2017 by Amit Gupta along with RK Misra, Naveen Dachuri and Hemant Gupta, is a technology-driven mobility platform which uses IoT, ML, and AI for demand-supply management and efficient operations. Currently, Yulu is present in Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar.

The company claims to have more than 18K eco-friendly vehicles, Yulu said it is witnessing a V-shape recovery post-lockdown due to the surge in demand for solo, safe, and sanitized mobility solutions. Yulu said it is committed to transforming the way people commute in India, working closely with the cities, corporates, and citizens.

Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Partner at Rocketship.vc said, “We believe that Yulu will revolutionize the daily commute of every Indian while having a significantly positive impact on the environment. We look forward to helping the amazing team at Yulu reach unprecedented scale on their path to creating a global leader in micro-mobility.”

With operations either completely put on hold or severely restricted, all last-mile connectivity and two-wheeler and four-wheeler startups incurred huge losses during the lockdown period. Yulu had also partnered with essential delivery companies to mitigate the impact to some extent.

In mid-May, Yulu had restarted its operations in Bengaluru and was waiting for Mumbai and Delhi NCR to open up. Gupta claimed that the business is recovering well in Bengaluru and the startup expects the same from Delhi and Mumbai.

In India, the auto industry has been going through a rough patch even before the pandemic struck.  The industry had been battling weak consumer sentiment, the transition to BS-VI technology, a credit crunch in the NBFC and MSME sectors which affected rural sales. Covid-19 simply made things worse. Needless to say, the coronavirus outbreak will have an impact on customer sentiments and business operations as well as discretionary spending on automobiles by organisations.