Bengaluru-headquartered Fresh Bus, a provider of outstation electric bus services, raised INR 43.7 crore ($5.3 million) in its Series A funding round.
PC: Travel News
Fresh Bus was founded in 2019 by second-time entrepreneur Sudhakar Reddy Chirra and has quickly established itself in the otherwise competitive online bus aggregator and operator market. The company’s value proposition lies in offering a full-stack platform that guarantees its holistic run, hassle-free, and convenient end-to-end travel experience.
What makes Fresh Bus stand apart is that the buses will have noise-free air-conditioned cabins, IoT-supported real-time air-quality and temperature monitoring, security CCTVs, in-bus and personal charging docks for gadgets, Wi-Fi, real-time tracking, and alcohol checks, all these modern facets assure safe, comfortable, and contemporary-customized travel.
In the recent fund-raising round, the company’s board passed a special resolution to issue 2 equity shares and 63,825 Series A Compulsory Convertible Preference Shares at the issue price of INR 6,845 aggregating up to INR 43.68 Cr. With this strategic move, Fresh Bus has infused the much-needed capital for its growth and expansion plans.
Fresh Bus is not a novice to funding. In its second seed funding last year, it secured INR 7.5 Cr, and much value was drawn from investments in the innovation of the platform from big guns like Kunal Shah, Founder and CEO, CRED; Sudarshan Venu, CEO, TVS Motors; and Deepak Garg, CEO and founder of Rivigo.
Series A remains live; Fresh Bus will most likely be able to raise additional capital in the coming months. It will help the company increase and make the electric bus fleet larger.
Although Fresh Bus is facing stiff competition in the online bus aggregation and operation market with players like IntrCity SmartBus, ZingBus, and gogoBus, its model of focusing and bringing to its clientele a superior traveling experience through the use of electric buses remains unique. Such is the need of modern travelers, who can highly appreciate comfort, safety, and convenience, which La Fresh Bus has to offer, equipped with real-time air-quality monitoring and personal charging docks on its buses.
In these respects, the investment from ixigo, one of the pioneers of the travel platform in India, speaks to the potential and the promise that Fresh Bus presents. This strategic investment, backed by ixigo, will provide a larger user base and technological expertise to Fresh Bus. This will usher in real and major growth for Fresh Bus.
The founding member of Fresh Bus, Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, was elated about the development emanating from this funding round and further expounded on the innovative outcomes of this investment in relation to when customer satisfaction is obtained.
The success of Fresh Bus mirrors a new demand for sustainable, comfortable travel alternatives within India. The Fresh Bus is fitted with a battery-driven electric motor, which totally befits the new environmental awareness that there is in the population related to that place. And with this, the company should be considered to be in a better position in future growth.
The Series A, funding INR 43.6 Cr, raised is the one thing that would bring about a tectonic shift for Fresh Bus. Strongly poised and further strengthened through ixigo and other investors, the company would be in a situation to truly spread its wings and work toward turning a new leaf in the bus-travel-view scenario in India. All the more, now that Fresh Bus has scaled its heights, it would be exciting to watch how it uses its current sets of investments to come up with innovative services.
