It comes at a time when Swiggy’s rival Zomato announces 10-minute food deliveries.
Rapido, a bike taxi startup, has secured $180 million in a Series D round headed by Swiggy and supported by TVS Motor Company and current investors Westbridge, Shell Ventures, and Nexus Ventures. The business has raised more than $130 million to date.
This round comes as Swiggy’s competitor Zomato announces 10-minute meal delivery.
Commenting on the funding, Rapido said: “Swiggy’s participation in this round will build on the synergies between the two companies. With a common mission to deliver superior customer experience through higher fleet availability, it will also provide additional earnings for both Swiggy’s delivery executives and Rapido’s captains.”
Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO of Swiggy, said: “Swiggy and Rapido share a vision to build a logistics platform that empowers riders through more opportunities and higher earnings. While we’ve already been working together, this investment facilitates closer alignment to leverage the synergies between the platforms and improve the value we provide to both consumers and delivery executives/captains across the country.”
Rapido intends to use the cash to improve its technology, amplify and develop its teams across varied sets of competencies, and boost total supply in metros, Tier 1, 2, and 3 cities.
Furthermore, the firm will invest in all three of its categories, bike-taxi, car, and delivery, in order to increase captain profits and improve customer experience in the more than 100 locations in which it operates.
Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, and Rishikesh SR launched Rapido in 2015. Rapido Rental is a first-of-its-kind multi-stop bike rental service designed for customers who need to do various activities in different locations but don’t want to deal with the headache of repeated bookings and waiting for the ride to arrive.
Rapido, founded in 2015 by Rishikesh SR, Pavan Guntupalli, and Aravind Sanka, claims to have a presence in over 100 Indian cities, with over 15 million consumers and 25 million app downloads to date. Through Rapido Local, the firm provides bike taxi, vehicle services, and peer-to-peer delivery of necessities such as groceries and medications.
Rapido was one of the startups that suffered greatly as a result of the epidemic, since a protracted lockdown prohibited them from venturing outside. As a result, Rapido shifted its focus to delivering critical items such as groceries and dairy products.
Rapido, which used to dominate the country’s bike taxi market, now confronts competition from Ola and Uber, who have now entered the bike taxi market.
