Sequoia leads $8m round for Indian car-rental firm Zoomcar
Sequoia Capital has led an $8 million round of funding for Zoomcar, an Indian car-rental start-up, alongside existing investors including Empire Angels, FundersClub, Basset Investment Group and Triangle Growth Partners.
Mohandas Pai, a former executive at Infosys, India's second-biggest software exporter, and Abhay Jain, adviser of the Manipal Education & Medical Group, also joined the round. The company previous round was worth $3 million.
Banglore-based Zoomcar was formed in February 2013 with seven vehicles. It now has over 250 cars in about 40 locations across Bangalore and Pune. Customers drive the rented vehicles themselves - a niche approach in a domestic car-hire market that is 95% chauffeur-driven. The company is looking to expand into new cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Goa.
"[The founders] have built technology to make an incredibly user-friendly experience, with all bookings happening through the web or mobile app. With those characteristics, they are seeing incredible demand and have had to turn away customers 89 weekends in a row. We think they have a shot at changing the rules on car ownership in India," Shailendra Singh, managing director of Sequoia India, said in a statement.
India's personal transportation market is popular among VCs. Last week, taxi-booking app Ola raised $210 million in a Series D round of funding led by SoftBank. Local rival Taxiforsure.com has received backing from Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Blume Ventures, while Inventus Capital Partners supports Savaari Car Rental.
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