By FY2022-end, our business will be twice the pre-COVID levels: Rapido

Bike taxi platform Rapido has seen a strong recovery in its operations over the last few months and is confident of business doubling by the end of March 2022 from pre-COVID levels, a top company executive said.

The company, which is operational in close to 100 cities, has added 'Rental' services across six cities to meet customer demand for multi-stop rides.

Speaking to PTI, Rapido co-founder Aravind Sanka said over the last months, the company saw a growing need for multi-stop and affordable ride among customers.

He explained that many people are now looking at completing a number of tasks when they step out. This could include shopping for grocery, bill payments and other work that they might want to complete in one trip, and so there is a huge opportunity to tap into this demand.

Also, many people who previously used public transport are looking at safer and affordable travel options.

"In the last two months, there has been a lot of positivity with offices opening and people stepping out although with a lot of caution...We have seen our business improving and we expect by end of March 2022, our business will be twice of pre-COVID levels," Sanka said.

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Talking about Rapido Rental, Sanka said the service has been launched in six cities - Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Jaipur. The company plans to expand to Tier-II and Tier-III cities soon.

The service will be available in multiple packages depending on duration, and riders can book rides for 1-6 hours.

He said the Rental concept was conceived as a result of customer usage data analysis. The company launched an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) to validate the data and once the validation was received, Rapido Rental was launched in the initial Tier-I cities.

Last year, Rapido announced several initiatives towards maintaining safety and following guidelines to protect the customer and the Captain, including the innovative safety back shields for bike taxi rides. The company also introduced new policy support last year, where the company provides free cancellation if captains or customers are without a mask.