As the Indian food delivery giant wants to expand its franchise network throughout the nation, Swiggy has led a $180 million fundraising round into bike taxi startup Rapido. Along with the current investor’s Shell Ventures, Westbridge, and Nexus Ventures, TVS Motor Company also invested in Rapido’s Series D investment round. Thus, Rapido is now valued at over $800 million in the latest round.
The six-year-old firm provides its two-wheeler service in roughly 100 Indian cities. And it has as supporters Amarjit Singh Batra of Spotify India and Kunal Shah of CRED. With $310 million in funding so far, Rapido claims to have over 25 million consumers and 1.5 million driver partners, or “captains,” in its network.
Rapido’s primary emphasis on two-wheelers has allowed it to continue to steadily develop at a time when the majority of other fleet startups and companies, like Ola and Uber, have failed to make deeper inroads in India.
In addition to this, a number of other businesses, including Swiggy’s main rival Zomato, have been trying to support Rapido recently. Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO of Swiggy, remarked that we have a lot of admiration for the tenacity that Rapido has exhibited in revolutionizing the transportation and logistics industry in India.
Swiggy and Rapido have the same goal in mind: to create a logistics platform that gives riders more options and better pay. Although we currently collaborate, this investment enables tighter alignment to take advantage of the platform synergies and enhance the value we offer to customers and delivery executives/captains across the nation. According to Rapido co-founder Aravind Sanka, the business would leverage “learning from Swiggy’s experience” to grow throughout the nation and improve the riding experience for its users. Additionally, TVS Motor, who is enthusiastic about EVs and the future of transportation, will support our continued growth. On the strength of our solid, global-standard technology, we intend to accelerate the pace at which we become a household name as we expand our regions and services, he continued. As a result, in the forthcoming year, the business plans to grow to service 50 million users, he added.