Accel, B Capital ride Series D for India's Bounce
Indian scooter rental platform Bounce has raised $105 million in a Series D round led by Accel Partners and B Capital Group.
Existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Falcon Edge and Sequoia Capital India also participated in the funding round, which brings the total capital raised by the company to more than $192 million. It previously received a Series C of $72 million last year led by B Capital and Falcon Edge Capital. InnoVen Capital, a venture debt provider, and Navi Technologies, an investment vehicle established by former Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, have contributed debt funding to the firm.
Bounce plans to use the fresh capital to introduce electric vehicles to its fleet and expand its geographical reach. Currently, the company operates in 35 cities and claims to have facilitated 16 million rides with 15,000 dockless bikes made available in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Dockless bikes, launched in September 2018, can be activated using a smart phone and do not need to be dropped off at a fixed location.
The company was formed in 2016 as a subsidiary of premium motorcycle rental service Wicked Ride. This coincided with the expansion of the Bengaluru metro in order to better serve commuters.
“The brand identified one of the key gaps in the mobility sector and has managed to provide a convenient and cost-efficient solution with its tech capabilities. The innovations around the keyless mechanism of using a scooter coupled with other IoT [internet of things] modifications, make Bounce unique,” said Anand Daniel, a partner at Accel.
Bounce's main competitor is Vogo, which also makes scooters available through its app. The company, backed by ride-hailing firm Ola, says its customers have completed five million trips. E-scooter rental providers Zypp, Fae Bikes and Yulu Motors also participate in the micro-mobility sector.
Apart from Zypp, the firms are all headquartered in Bengaluru. According to Berlin-based Unu Motors, a German manufacturer of electric scooters, Bengaluru has more than three times the number of scooters as Madrid, the city in Europe with the most active scooter-sharing market.
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