Swiggy leads $180m Series D for India's Rapido
Indian motorcycle taxi platform Rapido has raised USD 180m in Series D funding led by local on-demand delivery platform Swiggy.
TVS Motor came in as a new investor while several existing backers, among them WestBridge Capital Partners, Shell Ventures, and Nexus Venture Partners, re-upped. The company has now raised around USD 310m to date and is said to be valued at more than USD 800m. This compares to a reported valuation of USD 235m when Rapido closed its Series C on USD 52m in August 2021.
The Series C featured Shell Ventures, Nexus, WestBridge, Everblue Management, QED Innovation Labs, Motherson Lease Solutions, Positive Moves Consulting, and Yamaha, as well as individual investors like Pawan Munjal, chairman and CEO of Hero MotorCorp. Earlier backers include China's Shunwei Capital and Alibaba Group spinout Bace Capital.
Rapido offers an app that connects motorcycle taxi drivers with passengers. The idea is to facilitate low-cost daily commuting in a way that eases India's air pollution problems by optimizing the use of a large existing two-wheeler population, while also easing urban congestion. Bike taxi is one of three business units alongside car transportation and delivery.
Aravind Sanka, co-founder of the company, said in a LinkedIn post that more than 300m orders have been fulfilled since its inception. Rapido's services are available in more than 90 cities, with 450,000 monthly active drivers completing 20m orders every month. The goal is to serve more than 100m customers "with various modes of transport."
He added that Rapido would learn from Swiggy about scaling up nationwide and improving the driver and customer experience. In January, Swiggy closed a USD 700m round at a valuation of USD 10.5bn. The company, which connects consumers to more than 185,000 restaurant partners and stores in over 500 cities, has expanded its core meal delivery service to include groceries.
Rapido faces significant competition in the form of Ola and Uber, both of which have introduced motorcycle services in India. Other VC-backed players in this space include Bounce, a scooter rental platform, and Vogo, which is developing a model that combines traditional rentals with ride-sharing.
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