Zoomcar shuts operations of dockless cycle sharing platform - Pedl

Zoomcar, the car rental platform, on Tuesday sent a mail stating that it is will be putting an interim stop to its Pedl services Pan-India by December 21. The Bengaluru-based platform had launched PEDL, its cycle-sharing vertical in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout in November 2017. The e-mail stated that in 12 months since its launch, PEDL has officially served over three million bookings pan-India.

The e-mail said:

As you likely witnessed over the past year, Zoomcar continuously introduced new features and offerings to improve the overall PEDL experience. Whether through a more flexible end-trip mechanism or through a pioneering, industry-leading subscription model, the Zoomcar team always sought to push the boundaries on the cycle sharing experience.

Despite these improvements, one area where we still have work to do is on the quality of the cycle itself.  While Zoomcar has iterated on several cycle designs with a variety of different cycle manufacturing partners, we are yet to arrive at an optimal solution that will help us to deliver a consistently excellent customer experience at a meaningful scale. 

The email also stated that for those who recently signed up for a PEDL subscription, the Zoomcar team will connect later this week with a refund or a similar in-kind offer.

Greg is yet to comment on YourStory's query on this development. Earlier this year, Zoomcar raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Operational for five years, Zoomcar has a fleet of nearly 3,000 cars spread across 26 cities. When Zoomcar launched Pedl, the team was bullish about its growth.

Yet, one of the biggest concerns for bike or cycle sharing is maintaining the quality of the vehicles.

Since the end of 2017, the number of players entering the bike or cycle-sharing space in India has been growing, and with good reason. With the growing traffic snarls, trying to reach your destination is often quicker on bicycles.

Apart from Zoomcar, even Ola entered the space in 2017 with Pedal. There are also other players like Yulu, founded by Amit Gupta, Co-founder of mobile advertising platform Inmobi, Letscycle and 2018 Tech30 startup Mobycy.

Even Bounce, (earlier known as Metro Bikes) took over the assets of Chinese bike sharing unicorn Ofo in India. Earlier this year, Chinese dockless bike sharing unicorn Ofo had entered India with a big bang. A few months down the line, Ofo faced a cash crunch across geographies and while there was good demand for the service, there were not enough bikes available.

Bike-sharing or cycle-sharing is nevertheless a lucrative sector and many players continue to feel bullish about the space.