Bike Taxi Operator Rapido Raises Pre-Series A Funding

Bangalore-based bike taxi operator, Rapido, has raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A round of funding led by Pawan Munjal (chairman, MD & CEO of Hero MotoCorp Ltd), AdvantEdge Partners, Astarc Ventures, Tesellate Ventures, Anupam Mitta (founder & CEO of People group), Harish Bahl (founder of Smile Group), Ankit Nagori (ex CBO, Flipkart), Rajan Anandan (MD Google India & South East Asia) and Kunal Khattar (serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Carnation Auto).

Started in November 2015 by Aravind Sanka, Pavan G and Rishikesh Sr, Rapido is a platform where one can book a bike ride through a mobile app for travelling solo. Currently, the service is operational in Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Delhi.

Aravind Sanka, co-founder at Rapido said, “The funds will be deployed for Rapido’s expansion into other cities and building up the team. A majority of our customers use us as a daily commute option since we have built the product with deep understanding of their needs. We have unique features such as quick booking, favorite routes and multiple modes of booking including missed call booking service.”

With over 400 fleet of bikes already running across Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Delhi, the startup is set to touch 1,000 over the next two months.

With the steadily rising urban population and four-wheelers overcrowding roads, Rapido is attempting to reduce the carbon footprint at a massive scale. Within a short period of time, Rapido has over 50,000 app downloads and delivered more than 1,25,000 rides.

85% of Rapido’s rides are from repeat customers and 10% of the customers are women. Besides, it also helps customers save 40% cost and 50% time compared to alternative options.

Recently, the startup launched a free Bike sharing platform during the second phase of odd-even in Delhi which has got a tremendous response from the citizens of Delhi.

Safety and customer satisfaction are Rapido’s top priority. A rider has to complete a comprehensive test ride process, get the vehicle inspected, get all the requisite documents verified and accomplish mandatory training & certification before coming onboard. Rapido also monitors speed for each ride and sends prompts to the rider in case of over speeding.

Furthermore, Rapido also has an emergency SOS button installed within the app which allows Rapido’s safety measures team to monitor every ride taken on the network. The company has also partnered locally with leading ambulance services to help reach hospitals in case the need arises.

Rapido’s vision is to build a community where a rider with a spare seat on his two-wheeler gets to meet other riders who are open to the idea of sharing a bike ride. So, while the customer saves time and money, the biker on the Rapido platform gets an opportunity to earn some extra money. An easy user interface lets the customer identify the nearest rider and request a booking within seconds.

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