We plan to onboard more women captains: Rapido’s Aravind Sanka

Imagine your city with a few thousand women driving two-wheelers, cabs, and auto rickshaws, ferrying through traffic to pick you up and safely drop you off at your destination? Sounds almost utopic, especially for women who use ride-hailing services.

Aravind Sanka, Co-founder, Rapido, said, this is the next big initiative the company has planned. Sanka was in conversation with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO, YourStory and The Bharat Project, at TechSparks 2025 in Bengaluru.

Sanka was expanding on how women’s safety is priority for the company. He said that in larger cities, about 35% of rides come from women. “Over time, we’ve worked hard to change their perception on safety. We’ve introduced multiple safety features and platform-level safeguards, and we go a step further whenever the customer is a woman. All of this has helped build trust and comfort among women riders, and we’re proud of that progress,” he said. 

He said a natural progression on that route will be to add more women drivers, or ‘captains’ as Rapido calls them. “Now, our next goal is to extend this inclusion to the other side of the platform by bringing more women on board as captains. The gig economy, whether it’s delivery partners, cab drivers, or auto captains, is still overwhelmingly about 98–99% male. Women have been left behind in these categories, often due to a lack of access, awareness, or training. Changing that won’t happen on its own. It requires deliberate intent,” he said. 

Sanka said this is why the company is working on ways to train women and help them access vehicles. “I genuinely believe that change at scale only happens when there’s intent behind it. And in our case, that intent is clear and strong. The challenge is big, but if we keep things simple and focused, it’s absolutely achievable.

Earlier this year, the company announced that it plans to onboard 200,000 women captains as part of its ‘Pink Mobility’ initiative.