Zoomcar, one of the largest providers of online rental cars services, here in India, has today announced a fresh funding round worth $11 Million, powered by Nokia Growth Partners and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Empire Angels.
Zoomcar, which was launched current Chief Executive Officer Greg Moran in 2013, currently boasts of a strong fleet of 1,500 vehicles, which includes hatchbacks, sedans and luxury rides.
With fresh capital influx, Zoomcar is looking to expand that fleet by more than four times to 7,000 cars, with a planned expansion in 15 more Indian cities. The firm already has 250 pickup spots in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
Co-founder and CEO Greg Moran said,
We will use the funding primarily to add new vehicles, continue hiring and continue to build out the tech and product. Over the next year, we expect to add more than 7,000 cars and we expect to launch in 15 more cities pan-India.
The startup was co-founder David Back who resigned from the company back in January. He essentially wrote the business plan for Zoomcar as an independent research paper while in Harvard. He later decided to leave college and start Zoomcar with Cambridge fellow Moran.
Back still however holds his stake in the company and sits on the board.
Zoomcar, which recently raised a $1 Million venture debt from Innoven, counts Infosys ex-CFO Mohandas Pai, former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers and British businesswoman Lady Barbara Judge amongst its many backers. The company has raised close to $22 Million in totality.
Zoomcar, principally aims to organise India’s massively scattered car rental business. Via its mobile apps and desktop platform, Zoomcar offers standardised renting rates across the country, bringing in much needed transparency to the usually shady transactions which happen in this business.
While local car rental services are in abundance in India, there are very few online, organised players in the segment. Zoomcar’s toughest competition right now, is perhaps carzonrent, which offers similar services, however with a chauffeur.
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