Self-Driving car rental startup Zoomcar may soon get another funding push. This is courtesy due to its existing investor Mahindra & Mahindra, which is reportedly planning to invest $300-500 through a new funding round. According to report published in Livemint, Mahindra & Mahindra is planning to finance the new round through equity as well a debt funding. Livemint report further claims that Zoomcar’s existing investors based in U.S. are also likely to participate in the upcoming round.
But the most important information that sources are putting forth is that this round might propel Zoomcar to the coveted unicorn club. This would be an impressive feet for a company that was valued merely $170 Mn in its last funding round. However, sources also claim that there is an important caveat attached to its expected $1bn valuation. The caveat being that the company can attain this valuation only when at least 40% of funding comes from equity route.
Till date, barring few exceptions, no startup has ever made a quantum jump of massive $800 Mn in its valuation to enter the unicorn club.
Zoomcar was incorporated in 2013, when Ola and Uber were just beginning to catch public’s imagination. The startup is also unique for the reason that both its co-founders – Greg Moran and David – are foreingers. Although David left long time back, the startup’s foreign connection through its founders makes for a unique proposition.
But the one proposition that Zoomcar would surely like to boost about is its emergence as a leader in self-driving market. Although we don’t have the extact figure, the company is certainly well ahead of all its competitors in market share. The company now aims to consolidate its market leadership with the help of upcoming funding. It is likely to use the funding to boost the number of cars on its platform; taking from current 7,000 cars to almost 3 lakh cars in next 2-3 years.