Bounce, which is an app-based two-wheeler rental startup, has secured $105 million in its new Series D round of funding, led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s venture capital fund B Capital and Accel Partners.
With this new funding round, the company is now valued at over $500 million, up from $200 million in June last year. Earlier, it was reported that the company has raised $150 million in its Series D funding round, however, it seems like Bounce fell short or some of the deals didn’t materialise.
Along with B Capital and Accel, Sequoia Capital, other investors that participated in this funding round include Chiratae Ventures, Falcon Edge, Maverick Ventures, Omidyar Network India, Qualcomm Ventures and Sequoia Capital India.
Commenting on this funding round, Anil G, chief operating officer and co-founder, said: “We have been successful in proving this is a solution that appeals to a very large population. Our efforts would be to scale up to 10-12 major cities and 100 smaller cities in the coming few quarters. We believe (tapping) smaller cities is a big opportunity, as they don’t have all the (transportation) facilities like in big cities.”
The upstart has now raised over $194 million in funding so far. The newly raised capital will be used by the company to fuel a deeper electric vehicle (EV) integration and help drive the firm towards profitability.
Bounce went through a re-branding and pivot before it positioned itself as a premium bike renting startup. A few years ago, it started as a two-wheeler scooter rental app Metro Bikes which was later rebranded as Bounce.
While its dockless scooter service is active in Bengaluru and Hyderabad with 13,000 and 2,000 vehicles, respectively, the company has docked scooter rental service available to commuters in 35 cities, with more than 120,000 daily rides. The company is now aiming to enter Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and the NCR.
In this space in India, the company is up against Vogo directly while Rapido and bike taxis by Ola and Uber are its indirect competition.
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