LiftO, a mobile platform for ride-sharing, has raised $130K (INR 85 lakh) in angel funding. Rajesh Bhatia, promoter of Tree House, Dheeraj Mehta, fund manager with Temaesk, Amith Aggarwal, promoter of Staragri Warehousing and the Gupta family from OM Logistics are among the list of investors which include promoters of established listed & unlisted companies, private equity fund managers and other corporate executives.
The funds will enable the company to expand to more cities and increase its user base. The company aims to cover all parts of Mumbai within a year and then move to Delhi-NCR and Gurgaon.
Founded by Vikesh Agarwal, Nikhil Agarwal and Chennai-based Hakuna Matata Solutions (P) Ltd., LiftO, is a peer-to-peer premium realtime ridesharing platform. It lets people share their daily commute with a professional on 50:50 cost sharing basis. It is a contrarian platform which is at its maximum functional capacity during peak office hours when cab aggregators like Ola, Uber, etc. are either not available or are available at surge pricing.
For security reasons, LiftO verifies the users through LinkedIn. If a user doesn’t have a LinkedIn account, the company then verifies the details manually.
Vikesh says, “We need critical mass of users on hyperlocal basis to satisfy the needs of lift givers and lift takers.” The LiftO app has been designed on the principles of convenience to enable people to give a lift to someone or take a lift from someone with only three clicks. The startup’s proprietary route matching algorithm projects accurate ride matchings without the riders having to take detour or wait for anyone.
Currently, there are around 8 lakh private cars in Mumbai alone, while the no. of AC and non-AC cabs amounts to less than a lakh. LiftO aims to become a global leader in this market domain through the usage of technology and smartphone penetration, allowing passengers to connect with passengers and share their commuting costs.
Other players in this market include Jump In Jump Out, which is two months into its operations and already has over 500 users and Tripada, a car pooling solutions platform focused on long distances.
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