Dockless bike rental startup Bounce on Thursday announced fresh fund infusion by raising $105 Mn from investors. This additional fundraising was part of the ongoing series D round that enabled the company to recently raise $97 Mn. Accel Partners and B Capital spearheaded the latest fund infusion ($105 Mn). Several existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Chiratae Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures also participated in the round.
Following the latest fund infusion, Bounce has most probably closed the series D round. With the closing of this round, the bike rental startup’s total fundraising amount has now reportedly risen to $ 194 Mn. Bounce’s market valuation has also seen a substantial jump, with business intelligence platform paper.vc touting the company’s current market valuation to approximately $500 Mn.
The company has said that it will now focus on migrating significant chunk of vehicles to electric vehicles and this is going to be made possible by debt financing. The company has given enough hints about raising debt for its ambitious EV project.
After the closure of series D round, expanding to other geographical territories will be a part of company’s future pursuit as well. Bounce claims to clock over 16 Mn rides and 1.2 lakhs per day. Although these numbers have not been verified, nonetheless today Bounce is surely one of the major players in the bike rental industry.
The Bengaluru based bike rental startup primarily competes with Vogo, which till date has raised substantial amount of funding from several high profile investors including Ola. In fact, media reports claim that Vogo continues to be in talks with major investors for fresh funding.
Following heightened activities in the bike rental space, it is to be seen whether this highly nascent industry can replicate the same success of ride-hailing industry. Although traveling via bike doesn’t lend aspirational quotient and status symbol like commuting through car does, there is no denying that companies like Vogo and Bounce are still in advantageous position.
