For last few days scooter rental space has been bustling with frenetic funding activities. With barely a day ago Bounce raising $72 Mn, Vogo announced that it has raised undisclosed amount of funding from clutch of prominent individual investors. These high-profile investors include Ex -Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan, serial entrepreneurs K Ganesh & Srini Anumolu and SVG Media founder Manish Vij.
“The traction and rapid growth they have seen is a real validation of their strong product-market fit and a testament to their commitment towards providing superior customer experience with a dense network of Vogo stations,” Ananth Narayanan said.
This is second time that Vogo has raised funds this month. It raised $3.6 million debt from venture debt firm Alteria Capital nearly a week ago.
Off late investors have been clamoring to invest in Vogo as micro- mobility is steadily emerging as a lucrative space. The company has raised more than $100 Mn from the likes of ride-hailing major Ola and marquee VC firms like Kalaari Capital and Matrix Partners.
There seems to be growing consensus among investors that bike taxis will spearhead the next revolution in India’s urban mobility’s space. As a result, several bike taxi startups have mushroomed over the years with many of them successfully raising funds. It is estimated that bike-sharing startups raised nearly $138 Mn last year, almost 50% increase in fund-raising witnessed in 2017. There is every likelihood that this positive fund-raising spree will continue in the current year as well.
Apart from Vogo and Bounce, other prominent players in this space include Rapido, Fae Bikes, QuickRides and Wheelstreet. The industry has also witnessed shut-down of several promising startups in an apparent signs that this fast-growing sector is riddled with several challenges. TuWheelz, Rideji, Headlyt, Heybob, and Zingo were some of the startups that were forced to shut down due to lack of funding and tractions.