Bangalore-based Wicked Ride Adventure Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates online rental service for scooters and motorcycles via app Metro Bikes and brand name 'Bounce', has raised $12.2 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, Accel Partners, Raghunandan G, co-founder of TaxiForSure, and a consortium of other investors have also participated this round.
The startup intends to utilize the funds in further scaling its network across Bengaluru, invest in a delivery model through innovations in technology and develop a pan-India presence by expanding to all major cities across India by 2020.
The startup, which recently changed its brand name to Bounce to avoid the confusion of being operational only in metro cities, has earlier raised $790,000 as seed fund in July 2015 followed by $1.5 Mn funding from Chandrasekhar Gopalan, chairman of Sutures India Pvt. Ltd, in February this year, according to data by Crunchbase.
Founded in May 2014 by Anil G, Varun Agni and Vivekananda Hallekere, Metro Bikes aka Bounce offers a dockless scooter sharing service allowing users to pick up the scooter from anywhere, ride to their destination and drop it off at any location.
The startup claims to be India's first smart urban mobility solution offering premium bikes including Harley Davidson, Triumph and Royal Enfield motorcycles. It charges on average ₹6 per kilometre from a rider.
Beside scooters and motorcycles, Bounce has also ventured into bicycles, electric pedalled bicycles and kick scooters.
In one of its future plans, the startup plans to eventually convert its entire fleet into electric vehicles and is in talks with partners in China and Taiwan to source such products.
H R Vivekananda, co-founder, Bounce, said that there is tremendous potential for innovation in the shared mobility segment given the major gap in last mile connectivity in intra-city travel. Market opportunity is around $4.5 billion.
Speaking about the funding, Shailesh Lakhani, managing director, Sequoia Capital India, said, "There has been a lot of attention on four-wheel shared mobility across the world. While it makes sense in other markets, a service like Bounce has immense potential in India, where limitations of space and cost has always made two-wheelers more popular."
"The network has the potential to be a category creator - being the first to offer an extremely cost-effective, personalised, motorised transport that fills a critical need gap in the Indian market — and Sequoia India is looking forward to being a part of this journey,” added Lakhani.
Last December, Y-Combinator backed Wheelstreet, touted as one of India’s largest motorbike rental platform, had launched a Dockless Commute platform for their users, which at that time was India's first. Prior to this, Mumbai-based self-drive bike rental platform ONN Bikes raised INR 4.5 crore from Venture Catalysts, Z Nation Lab and other angels.
Source - Business Standard
[Top Image ~ YourStory.com]
The startup intends to utilize the funds in further scaling its network across Bengaluru, invest in a delivery model through innovations in technology and develop a pan-India presence by expanding to all major cities across India by 2020.
The startup, which recently changed its brand name to Bounce to avoid the confusion of being operational only in metro cities, has earlier raised $790,000 as seed fund in July 2015 followed by $1.5 Mn funding from Chandrasekhar Gopalan, chairman of Sutures India Pvt. Ltd, in February this year, according to data by Crunchbase.
Founded in May 2014 by Anil G, Varun Agni and Vivekananda Hallekere, Metro Bikes aka Bounce offers a dockless scooter sharing service allowing users to pick up the scooter from anywhere, ride to their destination and drop it off at any location.
The startup claims to be India's first smart urban mobility solution offering premium bikes including Harley Davidson, Triumph and Royal Enfield motorcycles. It charges on average ₹6 per kilometre from a rider.
Beside scooters and motorcycles, Bounce has also ventured into bicycles, electric pedalled bicycles and kick scooters.
In one of its future plans, the startup plans to eventually convert its entire fleet into electric vehicles and is in talks with partners in China and Taiwan to source such products.
H R Vivekananda, co-founder, Bounce, said that there is tremendous potential for innovation in the shared mobility segment given the major gap in last mile connectivity in intra-city travel. Market opportunity is around $4.5 billion.
Speaking about the funding, Shailesh Lakhani, managing director, Sequoia Capital India, said, "There has been a lot of attention on four-wheel shared mobility across the world. While it makes sense in other markets, a service like Bounce has immense potential in India, where limitations of space and cost has always made two-wheelers more popular."
"The network has the potential to be a category creator - being the first to offer an extremely cost-effective, personalised, motorised transport that fills a critical need gap in the Indian market — and Sequoia India is looking forward to being a part of this journey,” added Lakhani.
Last December, Y-Combinator backed Wheelstreet, touted as one of India’s largest motorbike rental platform, had launched a Dockless Commute platform for their users, which at that time was India's first. Prior to this, Mumbai-based self-drive bike rental platform ONN Bikes raised INR 4.5 crore from Venture Catalysts, Z Nation Lab and other angels.
Source - Business Standard
[Top Image ~ YourStory.com]
galleri5's team[/caption]
IndianWeb2.com is an independent digital media platform for business, entrepreneurship, science, technology, startups, gadgets and climate change news & reviews.
