Chandigarh-based on-demand auto rickshaw aggregator, Jugnoo, has raised a total of $10 Mn in its second round of Series B funding led by mobile wallet and mcommerce company Paytm.
Paytm has invested $5 Mn in Jugnoo while the other $5 Mn has been infused by it’s existing investor Snow leopard, along with a new investor Rocketship.vc.
Samar Singla, CEO and co-founder of Jugnoo, said, “This funding will enable us to create even better opportunities for uplifting the stature of auto-rickshaw drivers in our country. We have been receiving a phenomenal response from drivers who are now readily adopting technology as a means of increasing their daily earnings. We will invest these funds in improving our driver efficiency and increasing our numbers in cities where we are currently in the growing phase. And with the kind of impact we have been able to make at the grass-roots, I am sure we have a long way to go.”
Jugnoo was founded in October 2014 by Samar Singla and Chinmay Agarwal. The startup now has a presence in about 30 cities and 11 villages across the country. It claims to have a network of around 10,000 auto-rickshaw drivers across India growing at a steady rate. They also have women drivers in Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Noida. In February this year, Jugnoo announced its plans to reach out to about 1000 villages in India over the next six months looking beyond tier I and tier II cities.
Jugnoo fulfils its hyperlocal on-demand delivery services using auto rickshaws as a logistics engine. In September 2015, it acquired restaurant discovery app Bistro Offers, and mobile only services marketplace yelo.red. The size of both the deals was identified at $1 Mn including cash and stock components. It had also reported to have acquired taxi aggregator BookMyCab in 2015 but the deal had fallen apart.
Jugnoo’s Funding Galore
February 2016: TV and film actress Saumya Tandon invested an undisclosed amount of funding. As part of the agreement, the actress had been signed as the face of the company.
January 2016: It raised $2.5 Mn in the second tranche from Paytm in order to complete the first round of $5.5 Mn Series B funding along with Snow Leopard.
November 2015: It raised $3 Mn in the first tranche of $5.5 Mn of Series B funding led by Paytm at $50 Mn pre-money valuation. After this round, Paytm’s stake in Jugnoo has gone up to around 20%.
June 2015: It raised $5 Mn Series A round of funding from Snow Leopard Technology Ventures and Paytm.
April 2015: It raised a seed round of $1 Mn from Rakesh Mathur (Junglee, Flywheel), Vikas Taneja (previous investments in Rapportive, PubNub, etc.).
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