[Funding alert] Bosch invests Rs 14.8 Cr in Routematic

Manufacturing giant Boschhas invested Rs 148 million (Rs 14.8 crore) in Bengaluru-based B2B SaaS platform Routematic, according to a BSE filing.

The filing said, Investment in Nivaata Systems Private Limited up to 7.14 percent of the Capital on fully diluted basis, aggregating to an amount not exceeding Rs 148 million (Rs 14.8 crore).

In April 2019, Routematichad raised $2.5 million in pre-series A round of funding. The company is backed by Blume Ventures and VAMM Ventures. 

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Meet Routematic, a startup solving your daily office commute problems

Founded in 2013 by Surajit Das and Sriram Kannan, Routematic started as a transport automation solution provider. The platform operates on a SaaS model and offers cloud-based location tracking and vehicle management solutions to corporates.

By 2018, the startup transitioned into a full-fledged employee transportation company, adding fleet aggregation to its portfolio.

Routematic is present in 16 cities and has over 80 customers. In 2019, Routematic powered over 1 million trips and the platform had 1.5 lakh users. Recently Routematic expanded its offerings to provide tech-enabled transport and social distancing solutions for the manufacturing industry. The startup doesn’t own any assets, and is only an aggregation platform. Some of the other startups in the space include - MoveInSync, HopOn, Unisys, and Cubito.

According to the company, all vehicles are equipped with alarms and SoS buttons, and client organisations are immediately alerted on the tracking software in case of any incident.

This is one of the rare cases that a mobility startup has raised funding during the pandemic. According to a McKinsey report, the traditional automotive sector is likely to produce 7.5 million fewer vehicles in 2020 – an impact being attributed to the pandemic. 

There has been a whopping 70 to 90 percent drop in the number of riders across major cities in the world. The report added there has been a decline of up to 70 percent by most ride hailing companies.