Car sharing platform Revv raises $9M
Founded in 2015, Delhi-NCR-based Revv, a shared mobility solutions provider, has raised $9 million in equity and debt funding.
According to the release, the Series A equity funding was led by Edelweiss Private Equity and the debt funding from financing partners such as Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and car leasing partner LeasePlan India. The lead investor will also be joining the board of the company.
The platform, presently active in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chandigarh, aims to utilise the capital to launch its services in new cities, create new products, and build proprietary technology to enhance customer experience.
Speaking on the development, Anupam Agarwal and Karan Jain of Revv said, “We have witnessed a continuous uptick in the acceptance of our first product (car-sharing), with very encouraging repeat rates. More than half of our revenues come from repeat users. Users are realising that a combination of hired mobility options can be a true and practical alternative to owning a car.”
Talking to YourStory, the duo added that the company has gone completely asset-light, as opposed to the previous model, and they are crowdsourcing cars from multiple entities and individuals. “People are not necessarily required to own cars. They are saying a car is an asset which can easily be shared between people. Our ambition is to change India’s 2 percent car ownership penetration to 50 percent car usage penetration, with a vast majority of urban Indians getting affordable access to safe and comfortable mobility. We want to be accessible in almost every million-plus city in India.”
Last August, Revv had raised a seed round from Gautam Kumra (recently elected India MD of McKinsey & Company), Rajat Dhawan (mentor to McKinsey’s automotive practice) and Ananth Narayanan (CEO of Myntra).
“The on-demand economy will challenge the traditional asset-ownership models, which bred inefficiency on both the supply and demand side. We believe that Revv’s approach to creating use-case based products will meet customers’ needs without compromising the convenience and flexibility of owning the vehicle, while allowing for better utilisation of assets on the supply side,” says Pranav Parikh, Managing Partner, Edelweiss Private Equity.
Market overview
According to Ken Research, Indian car rental market revenue will grow at a considerable CAGR and is expected to touch Rs 800 crore by 2019.
Zoomcar, JustRide, MiCar, Carzonrent, Selfdrive.in, Voler, RentoMojo, and many other players are exploring the opportunities in the self-drive car rental market. According to an estimate, more than 10 organised players are working in the segment in the four metro cities, with new players continuously joining in.
The other players in the space are also launching various campaigns, packages, and services to increase their user base. Companies are also integrating technologies like driver behaviour monitoring (DBM) and on-board diagnostics (OBD) in their cars.
Presently, the market is inundated with numerous players. However, according to industry experts, only a few will survive in the longer run.