Revv raises $14.2M in its Series B round led by Hyundai Motor
Revv will use the funds to expand its product offerings for long-duration and on-demand use cases, strengthen its technology team, and build brand awareness.
Delhi-based car-sharing startup Revv raised $14.2 million (Rs 100 crore) in its Series B funding round led by South Korea’s largest automaker, Hyundai Motor, making Hyundai the first and only automotive company among Revv’s investors. The other investors who participated in the current round include Dream Incubator, Sunjay Kapoor of Sona BLW, Telama Investment, and existing investors Edelweiss and Beenext.
The company will use the funds to expand its product offerings for long-duration and on-demand use cases, strengthen its technology team, and build brand awareness. It also plans to increase its geographical footprint to 30 cities during the next 12 months from the current 11 cities it is operating in, said the company in a statement.
Revv was founded in July 2015 in Delhi-NCR by ex-McKinsey executives Anupam Agarwal and Karan Jain. The market for car sharing in India is slated to expand to $2 billion by 2020.
Revv has more than 3,00,000 users and aims to re-imagine mobility solutions for users’ needs, ranging from few hours to a few years, to cater to the vast majority of Indians who do not own a car. Its products include hourly self-drive car sharing, one-way outstation car sharing, and Switch, India’s first monthly car subscription programme that lets members enjoy all the benefits of car ownership without the hassle of upkeep and maintenance.
This is not the first time an automaker has invested in an Indian startup; companies like Ashok Leyland, Mahindra, TVS, and Ford have already done that.
With this investment, Hyundai Motor gains its first foothold in the Indian car-sharing market and is the only automotive company amongst Revv’s investors. Hyundai Motor’s blueprint is to co-develop the company’s new growth engine by developing innovative mobility services that combine technologies such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence with the sharing economy to transform people’s lives, the company said.
Growth trajectory
Y K Koo, MD and CEO, Hyundia Motor India Ltd, said, “We are just about to step forward and expand our business into the future mobility field with Revv. Hyundai Motor India will build a prominent system with both ‘Open Innovation’ strategy and India’s fastest growing self-drive, car-sharing company, Revv.”
Pranav Parikh, Managing Partner and Head, Edelweiss Private Equity, said, “The strategic investment by Hyundai Motor validates our belief in the innovation and execution performance shown by Revv. This partnership further strengthens Revv's capabilities and the growth trajectory in India while opening up avenues for global partnerships through Hyundai's network.”
The company said only 2 percent of Indians own cars - the number in China and US is 20 percent and 80 percent, respectively. For the other 98 percent, cabs solve the problem of commuting. “This is the white space that we aim to fill. This is about truly democratising mobility, and taking India’s 2 percent car ownership to 50 percent car access,” Revv said.