South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor has picked up undisclosed stake in self-drive car rental startup Revv. Both companies have refused to divulge the financial details of the deal. Hyundai is already one of the formidable players in India’s auto market and is vying to close the gap with current market leader Maruti Suzuki.
The deal will enable both Hyundai and Revv to create a technology and competency that will help to drive India’s car mobility market to next stage, a statement released by South Korean auto giant said.
Revv was founded by Anupam Agarwal with an aim to revolutionize India’s self-drive rental space. Currently, the company offers rental services in several Indian metropolitan cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Pune and several other cities.
According to crunchbase, the company has raised substantial amount of funding through debt financing rounds.
Future for India’s Self-drive rental segment is looking promising
Hyundai’s decision to step into India’s self-drive rental market is certainly backed by solid facts and figures, which depicts a very promising future for the entire industry. India’s self-drive rental market that was touted to be around 900 million in 2016 has expectedly touched 1.5 billion in 2018 and is estimated to surpass $2 billion mark by 2020.
Revv’’s main rival in this space is Zoomcar, which has Ford Motors as one of its strategic investors. In fact, an interesting trend has been witness over the years wherein big auto giants are picking up stakes in car rental startups. Japanese auto giant Toyota is one of the stake holders in online auto marketplace Droom. Earlier this year, Japanese auto giant pumped $1 Bn in Southeast Asian ride hailing firm Grab.
Industry analysts claim that most auto giants are rushing to invest in car rental startups with the fear that the emergence of car rental may affect people’s propensity to own a car in the future.