Zoomcar, a self-drive car rental platform, raised $30 million in a fresh funding led by Sony Innovation Fund, the venture arm of Japanese electronics giant Sony. The funding is a part of Series D funding round, in which existing investors took part in the investment.
Zoomcar will utilise the funds for further expansion of its business. The company will even invest in technology, data science and innovations around the Internet of Things which is the next big thing in future.The company has presence in 45 cities in India and looks forward to reaching across the country that are emerging markets for the company.
As per a media report, the company has said that it is committed to growing its fleet by 10 times in the next 18-24 months to 1 lakh vehicles. Zoomcar views its shared subscription model that allows customers to rent cars for tenures spanning 6-36 months, to see growth in the future.
Zoomcar claims to hit a 15,000-subscription run rate in the third quarter report of last year. “With the growth of shared economy across the globe, subscription-based car ownership is becoming an increasing trend,” the company said in a statement to the media.
The competition in the self-drive rental space is getting heated up as ride-hailing company Ola is even looking to expand its presence in this sector. Viewing this, Ola launched the service in October last year stating that it was looking to build a fleet of 20,000 self-drive cars by 2020. Ola had said i Buoyed by higher margins than its traditional cab-hailing business.
Zoomcar’s biggest rival in this sector, Drivezy, has so far raised around $31 million in funding, plus it secured a $100 million deal in asset financing. In the recent past, Drivezy said it plans to deploy the capital by adding 50,000 cars on the roads in the coming three years.
