Zoomcar, the leading online self-drive car rental startup, today announced that it has raised an undisclosed funding amount from Chinese VC firm Cyber Carrier CL. This investment comes as part of the venture capitalists India-focused fund, who has reportedly poured in capital just less than $10 million into the venture.
This investment into Zoomcar comes on the heels of its recent $25 million fundraising round led by Ford Smart Mobility LLC. It also saw the participation from existing backers including the likes of Sequoia Capital, Empire Angels, OurCrowd, and Nokia Growth Partners. This funding is now being called an extension of the same Series B round raised in July earlier this year.
Talking about how the company plans to deploy the latest investment, Greg Moran, Co-founder and CEO of Zoomcar, says,
Customer experience and IoT-enabled product innovation will remain our highest priorities as we scale ZAP across India in the months ahead, and our relationship with Cyber Carrier CL will no doubt help us create a world leading marketplace experience for both our renters and associate owners.
Expanding beyond the scope of their own vehicles, the company plans to further scale Zoomcar Associate Program (ZAP) which enables the user to register and onboard his own vehicle to the platform. The users can add their vehicles on the car rental platform based on their own discretion and the funds secured by leasing the car to customers will be split with the owner on a monthly basis.
In addition, Zoomcar is also looking to step foot beyond the confines of the Indian territory and venture into the African market by the end of 2017, where the Chinese already have a strong presence. Commenting on their investment, Jessica Wong, Managing Partner of Cyber Carrier, says,
Our investment team is quite familiar with similar models in China and the US. Based on the company’s data and financial model, we believe Zoomcar will ‘accelerate’ on the path of rapid growth and expansion.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, Zoomcar was founded by Greg Moran and David Back back in 2013 with the aim of organizing the country’s scattered car rental ecosystem. It is currently operational in over 14 cities in the country and has a fleet of nearly 2,500 cars, including Ford, Maruti, Mahindra, Hyundai, Honda, Audi, Mercedes, and Toyota. But it has sketched out an expansion plan with goals of reaching another 15 cities with a fleet of 7,000 vehicles.
Cyber Carrier is a Hong Kong-based VC fund targeting India’s internet and mobile-focused market. Since the launch of the fund, it has made nearly 10 investments, including online lending platform IndiaLends and student loans platform Krazybee.
