India’s leading ride-hailing company Ola has decided to invest an additional $100 million in scooter-sharing startup Vogo, this new funding will help the firm to expand its current fleet.
The scooter-sharing startup started its service eight months ago with 2000 scooters in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, now with this new funding, the firm can acquire 100K new scooters that will be rolled out in the two cities over the next year.
Earlier this year, Vogo raised $6-7 million in a Series A funding round led by Ola, Matrix Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners and Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal.
Founded by Anand Ayyadurai, Sanchit Mittal and Padmanabhan B, Vogo scooters come with an internet of things device that allows the customer to access the key via one-time-password (OTP) which eliminates the need for human intervention.
The company claims that over 100,000 users have commuted for over 20 million kilometers on its scooters.
“Vogo has seen rapid growth in the last 5 months, growing over 10x in scale. We are thrilled to have Ola join us on this journey and help turbocharge our growth by providing us access to strategic and capital efficient supply as well as access to millions of customers on its platform in the time to come,” said Ayyadurai.
Currently, users avail bike rental services through Vogo app on Google’s Play store, it enables users to locate, unlock and pick-up its scooters and bikes at one point, and drop it off at a different point, without the need for a docking station but, now Vogo scooters can also be booked via Ola app.
The company currently faces competition from other scooter-sharing apps such as Bounce, WickedRide, Stoneheadbikes, Rentabike, and others.
“Our investment in Vogo will help build a smart multi-modal network for first-last mile connectivity in the country. Vogo’s automated scooter-sharing platform, backed by Ola’s expertise in this space can help transform our cities. Together, we are thrilled to be at the forefront of India’s rapidly growing micro-mobility market,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola.
HrNxt.com Newsdesk has researchers and writers with an excellent domain knowledge about the talent ecosystem, and the business environment. The team keeps a tab on the latest happenings in the ecosystem to bring most relevant news and insights for our readers. You can connect with our newsdesk at newsdesk@hrnxt.com.