By Nikhil Cariappa
Bangalore based self-drive car and bike rental company Drivezy has secured $20 million in a Series B equity financing round led by Das Capital, with participation from Axan Ventures, Yamaha Motor and IT- Farm. It has raised an additional $100 million in an asset financing deal through which it plans to add 50,000 vehicles to its platform via a Special Purpose Vehicle.
At the end of this round, Drivezy has raised a total of $31 million in equity financing. It currently operates in 9 cities – Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Mangalore, Manipal, Mysore, Kochi and Nagpur.
It will use the funding for
- Entering new markets
- Scaling operations in Bangalore and Hyderabad
- Claims to have secured 3000 scooters in a deal with Honda Motorcycle and Scooter
- Plans to deploy an additional 10,000 bikes and scooters in Bangalore and Hyderabad by December 2018
- Claims that since January 2018, it has doubled the number of vehicle listings on the marketplace
Drivezy was co-founded in 2015 by Ashwarya Singh, Abhishek Mahajan, Hemant Sah, Vasant Verma and Amit Sahu. Formerly known as ‘JustRide’, it allows vehicle owners to list their idle cars, motorcycles and scooters for rent on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Drivezy claims to have 7000 cars, bikes, scooters on its platform, rented by about 37,000 people every month.
Previous funding
- Drivezy raised $7 million in 2017 from Axan Partners, Das Capital and IT Farm
- In 2016, it raised $3 million from San Francisco-based Susa Ventures, Kima Ventures, Axan Ventures and IT Farm from Japan along with Y Combinator partners Justin Kan (Co-founder-Jutin.tv & Twitch.tv), QasarYounis (COO of Y Combinator) and Paul Buchheit (creator of Gmail)
Competition
Drivezy will compete with the self drive car rental Zoomcar which raised $40 million earlier this year led by Mahindra & Mahindra, with participation from existing investors. Note that Zoomcar is already associated with Mahindra for electric vehicles. Zoomcar’s ZAP program lets users attach their vehicles for rent. However, Zoomcar offers only car rentals while Drivezy offers a larger range of vehicles, including bikes.
Our self drive cars coverage here.
