Automovill Partners With DriveU to Provide Car Services to All DriveU Customers via the DriveU App With a Unified User Experience

All existing DriveU users/customers can access Automovill Offers and Services with a single app button click

Automovill, a full-stack mobility start-up, has announced partnering with DriveU to offer car services to all DriveU customers through the DriveU -APP maintaining a unified user experience. This collaborative effort brings together DriveU’s on-demand driver service and Automovill’s new-age auto service chain model in key markets across India.

DriveU has approximately 1.5 million active users on its APP/platform, and Automovill has expanded its services to include dedicated and curated offers for DriveU customers in 9 cities across India including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurugram and Kolkata. All existing DriveU users/customers can access Automovill offers and services with a single app button click. Automovill services include (General Services, AC Services, Dent and Painting, Accidental Claims/Insurance Claim Support, Accessories, and so on) with free pick-up and drop services powered and supported by DriveU on-demand Drivers.

 
Speaking on the partnership, Ramana Sambu, Co-Founder & CBO, Automovill said, “We are delighted to announce this collaboration as yet another step toward increasing demand for high-quality services. With car repair and full stack auto service models becoming more popular, we not only aim to provide on-demand assistance through a large network of partners, suppliers, and auto specialists, but we also guarantee end-to-end responsibility, from vehicle pickup to servicing, with a post-service customer connection.”

“Besides hiring professional drivers, DriveU is the go-to Super App for car owners to discover, research, compare and purchase services such as car wash, spa & treatments, used car sales, insurance, roadside assistance and FASTag recharge. Car servicing from Automovill will be a great addition to our services for 5L+ car owners who have trusted us with their cars in the last 7 years. The partnership with Automovill is a great fit with our motto of simplifying the car ownership journey for the over 42 million car owners in India,” said Ashok Shastry, Co-Founder & CEO of DriveU

Automovill is offering DriveU customers a flat 10% discount on all services, as well as exclusive discounts on general car health checkups for the first 500 customers. Furthermore, on car servicing orders, DriveU is offering up to Rs.100 cashback and DriveU coins.

Automovill provides tech-enabled car detailing and servicing, as well as B2B refurbishment services. Recently, the company expanded its operations to Eastern and Central India, effectively providing car repair services in 20 cities across 14 states. DriveU on the other hand brings a unique combination of customer service, great value, the latest in the fleet and the convenience offered by technology to give customers the next-generation transport and logistics services.

About Automovill

Started the operation in 2016 in Bangalore and Guwahati, Automovill’s tech-enabled 360-degree approach enables impeccable customer experience by bringing trust, transparency, and convenience. Since its inception, the platform, co-founded by Mridu Mahendra Das and Chinmay Baruah and joined by Ramana Sambu as Co-Founder and CBO. Headquartered in Bangalore, Automovill now has a presence in 20+ cities with direct retail customers in Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Patna, Jaipur and Guwahati. Providing its service for nearly 4000 cars per month, Automovill has observed a massive 250% growth post-pandemic.

About DriveU

"DriveU has revolutionized the way consumers hire drivers for their private cars, and how businesses maintain a strong, reliable supply chain of professional drivers to transport vehicles. We have acquired over 500,000+ customers, 150+ businesses, that are served by 50,000+ background verified, uniformed professional drivers, and have completed 3.5+ Million trips. Consumers use DriveU for a variety of occasions; shopping around town, visiting friends and family, commuting to/from work, getting home safe after party, and taking road trips out of the city. Our vision is to provide sustainable, meaningful, and dignifying job opportunities to professional drivers, while building a positive unit-economic business. DriveU is backed by Unitus Ventures, Amit Singhal (ex-Google VP), Rajeev Madhavan (Clear Ventures) and other private investors from India and the Silicon Valley."

DriveU Acquires Mumbai-based Zuver To Enhance Its B2B-Focused Services

DriveU, India’s first and largest on-demand driver aggregator acquires Mumbai-based Zuver, an on-demand driver service provider that primarily caters to the business segment, in an all-equity deal. Post-acquisition, Sovin Hegde and Sidhanth Mally, founders of Zuver, will join DriveU to focus on driver aggregation for the car rental/lease and service station verticals of the business.

With this acquisition, DriveU further strengthens its position to better serve both consumers and businesses across India’s six largest metro cities - Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Pune and Hyderabad.

"Zuver has been very successful with car dealerships, service stations and car rental/leasing companies in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. Increasingly, businesses are demanding a national footprint for their on-demand driver needs. With this acquisition, DriveU will leverage Zuver’s strong suite to cater to customers across major metros that we operate in today,” said Ashok Shastry, Co-founder and COO at DriveU.

“While Zuver focused to serve businesses, DriveU successfully captured a majority of the consumer segment with its superior tech and a simple value proposition. We decided to join forces with DriveU to expand the market for on-demand drivers across multiple verticals,” remarked Sovin Hegde, Co-founder at Zuver.

Zuver’s on-demand driver service allows enterprises to not staff their own full-time drivers, while successfully catering to a fluctuating demand on a daily basis. Currently, Zuver’s B2B business completes over 8,000 trips every month. It’s pan-India customers for car rental/lease service include multinational corporations such as Orix and Avis for chauffeured services and its service station clients include Volkswagen, Maruti Suzuki and Honda, to name a few.

With this acquisition, DriveU now has over 6,000 drivers on its platform. The cross utilization of drivers between B2B and B2C lines of businesses optimizes DriveU operations and guarantee higher earnings for its drivers. The service station and dealer relationships that Zuver brings will serve as a foundation for DriveU’s vision of offering a platform for hassle-free and economical car ownership.

“Zuver identified the unfilled need to aggregate drivers for car leasing companies, car dealerships and garages. We understand the dynamics of this segment well. Under DriveU’s superior ops-tech umbrella, we are excited to further expand our footprint across major cities,” commented Sidhanth Mally, Co-founder at Zuver.

Commenting on this move, Kanishka Puri, Head Servicing at Kiran Motors, an authorized Maruti dealership said, "This merger will help provide a strong platform for car dealerships like us to fulfil our promises to our customers and build a robust ecosystem for auto dealerships”.

DriveU offers a reliable, transparent, on-demand driver service to its customers for local and outstation travel. DriveU focused on and delivered positive unit economics while serving over 2 Lakh trips since its inception. In its recently concluded second year of operations, DriveU tripled its trip counts and revenues as compared to its first year of operation. At the same time, DriveU incrementally improved its gross profit margin, while managing to increase driver earnings.

A typical DriveU consumer spends thrice or more than what they would otherwise spend on a cab ride. This translates into a healthy income for its drivers. A typical full-time DriveU driver can earn a steady monthly income of INR 25,000 – INR 30,000, while some earn more than INR 40,000. At the same time, DriveU removes the burden of EMI payments, fuels bills and vehicle maintenance for the drivers.

In February 2016, Unitus Seed Fund, India’s leading impact seed investor, led the seed investment round in DriveU. Subsequent investment from Unitus has provided DriveU the financial backing required to get to anticipated cash flow break-even by early 2018.

On-Demand Driver Service Firm DriveU Acquires Chennai based DriversKart

DriveU, India’s first and largest on-demand driver aggregator acquired Chennai-based DriversKart, an on-demand driver-service provider serving primarily the business segment in an all-equity deal. With this acquisition, DriveU consolidates its dominant position in the industry, catering to both consumers and businesses across 6 largest metro cities (Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Pune and Hyderabad). Unitus Seed Fund, India’s leading impact venture fund investing in early-stage startups innovating for the masses invested in DriveU in February 2016.

“With this acquisition, DriveU continues to consolidate its position as India’s premier driver aggregator for both consumers and businesses. Increasingly, we see the sharing economy offering opportunities to leverage our driver services as well. DriveU now plans to expand to over 10,000 drivers and 10 cities by the end of the year,” said Ramprasad (Rahm) Shastry, CEO, DriveU.

This is DriveU's second acquisition since its inception as exactly a year ago the Bengaluru-based company had also acquired CallAtHome, a driver booking platform based out of Gurgaon, for an undisclosed amount.

Since inception, DriveU has delivered positive unit economics, with the business growing 20 per cent month-on-month and has successfully managed to increase its drivers’ incomes by 2x. DriveU offers a reliable, transparent service to its customers at a flat rate of INR 99 per hour locally and INR 999 per 24 hours for outstation travel. On an average, DriveU customers are willing to spend 2x more than what they would for an average cab ride today – primarily owing to the high-quality and convenience of service that DriveU offers. This translates into a healthy income for the driver and for DriveU. On an average, drivers earn a steady monthly income of INR 25,000 – INR 35,000, while some earning more than INR 40,000. At the same time, DriveU also eliminates the burden of EMI payments, fuels bill and vehicle maintenance for the drivers.

“With deteriorating quality of service and increasing fares, customers’ preferences are slowly shifting back to using their private cars with on-demand driver services. DriveU’s growth is a testimony to the same. Both, DriveU and DriversKart have maintained price discipline and built sustainable businesses, benefitting customers and significantly increasing drivers’ incomes. With this acquisition, DriveU will now offer a compelling service to the B2B segment as well,” said Vinit Srivastava, CEO, DriversKart.

Post-acquisition, Mr. Vinit Srivastava, CEO at DriversKart will take an advisory role with DriveU and Ms. Kopal Maheshwari, COO at DriversKart will head the B2B business at DriveU.

Commenting on this move, P D Sundar, Head of QuikrServices who has worked with both DriveU and DriversKart, said, "At QuikrServices, on-demand drivers is one of the top 5 categories on our platform and we see a tremendous growing opportunity for this category. This merger will only help provide larger pool of service providers and build a robust ecosystem".

“We were attracted to DriveU as they have a business model with a price discipline from the get-go. They neither offered deep-discounted services nor do they lose on each trip. At the same time, they wanted to ensure that their drivers earn sufficient income and have a sustainable lifestyle. We are excited to have DriveU in our portfolio,” said Will Poole, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Unitus Seed Fund.

DriveU Acquires Driver Booking Platform CallAtHome For an Undisclosed Amount

[caption id="attachment_105598" align="alignnone" width="701"] DriveU's Co-founders - L to R - Ashok Shastry, Rahm Shastry and Amulmeet Shastry[/caption]

DriveU, Indian on-demand driver aggregator for private car owners has acquired Gurgaon-based CallAtHome for an undisclosed amount. With this acquisition, DriveU will now have over 500 partner-drivers across India.

DriveU, an on-demand driver service for private cars for travel both within the city limits and Outstation travel, is available in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi. Through this acquisition, DriveU introduces its highly-regarded service in Gurgaon.

“We are impressed with the breakneck growth that DriveU has experienced in such a short time. We are handing over CallAtHome customers and drivers to a worthy inheritor in DriveU” said Alok Inamdar, co-founder & CEO at CallAtHome.

“CallAtHome has provided unmatched customer experience based on App Store and Facebook reviews. DriveU having quickly ramped up its service in South Delhi were looking to expand into Gurgaon area. We are happy that CallAtHome is part of their equation” added Satyendra Singh, co-founder & CMO of CallAtHome.

About DriveU

DriveU offers curated drivers for a consumer’s personal vehicle, by implementing the best practices in technology, driver verification, training methods and on-road commute experience. Uniformed partner-drivers equipped with seat covers, and floor mats at a customer’s doorstep to drive them around the city and beyond. It lets customer focus on their life, rather than struggle with traffic jams and parking woes.

One can travel in the comfort of her own car and not experience the anxiety of not being able to hail public transport or taxi during inclement weather and rush hour.

With DriveU, a customer can hire an on-demand driver at an affordable cost. One doesn’t need to deal with a full-time driver and their sudden absences. The DriveU team ensures seamless user experience by implementing the best practices in technology, driver verification, training methods and on-road commute experience. Customer safety is of utmost importance to DriveU and it follows the stringent policies to get partner-drivers verified by the police and RTO, before registering them on the system.

The company has been operational in Bengaluru since July 2015 and has experienced a phenomenal growth. It is operational in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. DriveU plans to field 1,000 partner-drivers by the end of 2016.

About CallAtHome

Started in Gurgaon by Alok Inamdar, Satyendra Singh & Anubhav Sood with the objective ‘To be every car owner’s personal driver’, On-demand driver service CallAtHome has served over 7,000 trips since July’2015 with very high repeat usage.

With DriveU, Hiring A Professional Chauffeur Is Now Just A Tap Away

A driver is someone who we trust with our lives and the lives of our loved ones. He's a person whom we trust in the wee hours of the morning and dark times of the night. But, he's often also that person whom we hire without much consideration because we are so much caught up in our busy lives that we don't have that much time to run background checks or skills test for the person. But, don't you worry, DriveU, a Bangalore based startup has taken the matter in their hands and decided to do these tasks for you.

Providing its services in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai, the startup claims to be the easiest and the best way currently available to hire trained and verified private car drivers. With DriveU, one can hire a professional chauffeur right from their phone with just a few taps.

The hired drivers come wearing a proper chauffeur uniform, places a paper floor mat and a special seat cover in your car before driving it in order to maintain the hygiene standards.

For becoming a DriveU driver, one has to go through a rigorous process which involves training and tests sessions. This is done in order to make sure that the DriveU users have a peaceful and comfortable experience when making use of DriveU services.



A DriveU user can hire a driver on hourly basis and make use of his services as long as he/she wants. Currently available on Android and iOS platforms, the app offers a seamless mobile booking and payment platform. The app allows the user to book the nearest DriveU driver and track him while he is on his route to the pickup location. Once a booking is confirmed by the user, the driver’s name, picture, driver rating, phone number, driver’s distance from the user’s pickup location and the estimated time of his arrival is also provided to the user.

Started in July last year, DriveU is the result of the genius work of Ramprasad Shastry, Ashok Shastry and Amulmeet Singh Chadha. The startup has a unique strategy of bringing together customers with their own vehicles who are in need of a trusted driver. DriveU makes sure that the customers get an a safe, transparent, accessible and economical ride in their own vehicles.

So, whether you're starting early on a foggy day or coming to home after a fun party, you know who would always have your back. Download the app and experience it yourself.