New Delhi [India], Dec 8 : Delhi-NCR based shared mobility solutions platform Revv has announced USD 9 million of funds raised, across equity and debt.
Series A equity funding was led by Edelweiss Private Equity, and debt funding from financing partners such as Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services and car leasing partner LeasePlan India.
The start-up already counts the likes of Gautam Kumra (recently elected India MD of McKinsey and Company), Rajat Dhawan (Mentor to McKinsey's automotive practice) and Ananth Narayanan (CEO of Myntra), as its angel investors.
Having successfully scaled its operations across four cities in the last 15 months, Revv intends to leverage the freshly acquired capital to launch its services in newer markets, create new products to address untapped and potentially mainstream use-cases, and to build proprietary technology to enhance customer experience.
Founded by ex-McKinsey executives, Anupam Agarwal and Karan Jain, Revv started out with car-sharing as its first product, and has spent the last 15 months in establishing it as a mainstream mobility option, while building a profitable and scalable business model around it.
The company has combined an innovative asset-light sourcing approach with its unique delivery model (i.e.
substituting hyper-local parking with doorstep delivery) to make the customer experience seamless yet highly affordable.
"We have witnessed a continuous uptick in the acceptance of our first product (car-sharing), with very encouraging repeat rates.
More than half of our revenues come from repeat users. Users are realizing that a combination of hired mobility options can be a true and practical alternative to owning a car," said Anupam Agarwal and Karan Jain from Revv.
The number of people giving up traditional asset ownership is set to grow exponentially. The rise of taxi-hailing apps has been an important market-creator, weaning people away from traditional car ownership.
The key would be to address the highly varied needs of a shared-mobility user, through a suite of products tailored for each need.
For example, a weekend leisure trip, or mobility in a new city where one has relocated for a three month project, or a one-way outstation trip for work, or continuous availability of a car, but with the flexibility to turn it on/off at will.
"Our ambition is to change India's two percent car ownership penetration' to '50 percent car usage penetration', with a vast majority of urban Indians getting affordable access to safe and comfortable mobility.
We want to be accessible in almost every million-plus city in India. "A substantial part of the funds will go towards building technological capabilities on two-sided sharing platforms, predictive inventory management, dynamic pricing and driver behavior monitoring," they added.
"The on-demand economy will challenge the traditional asset ownership models, which bred inefficiency on both the supply and demand side.
A vast majority of the two crore cars on Indian roads are under-utilized, while the demand for vehicles continues to be strong.
We believe that Revv's approach to creating use-case based products will meet customers' needs without compromising the convenience and flexibility of owning the vehicle, while allowing for better utilization of assets on the supply side.
We are pleased to be part of its promising growth story, led by entrepreneurs who are focused on aggressive yet profitable execution," said Managing Partner Edelweiss Private Equity, Pranav Parikh.
Source: ANI
