Going out somewhere but don’t want to wait for a taxi?
Or
Want to avoid the city traffic to reach your destination on time
All these questions have one solution “ Rapido”
Rapido, a bike taxi, which drops you to your place without waiting for the taxi and without waiting a lot for traffic.
Bike wali taxi sabse sexy
With this tagline, Rapido provides bike taxi services in cities to ease your travel.
This article will give you a deep insight into Rapido’s success story
Introduction
Rapido was launched in Nov 2015 by three young entrepreneurs out of them two are IITians and one is a PESU alumni, Pavan Gutupalli, Rishikesh SR, and Aravind Sanka. Initially company was operating a business of logistics and supply chain to provide their customer with the best transportation services. But as time changed and the business was not showing that much potential to expand and grow, the founders decided to change the model from B2B to B2C.
So, the founders came up with the idea of offering a bike taxi service to people, as this model was different from what other players were involved in the taxi service.
Business Model
The company allows the customer to book their bike taxi from their application. Customers are required to give the pickup and drop-up point and timing. After that, the rider, who has been given the name of captain by Rapido, will reach your pick-up point. The fare charges are reasonable and fair in comparison which is Rs. 20 as the base fare and Rs.3 for every additional kilometre.
Rapido allows people to register themselves as Rapido Captains if they want to offer their candidate as a rider. The conditions with the Captains are they have to own their own bike and the model of their bike must not be older than 2010. These could be due to some regulatory issue or pollution control value. Today, Rapido offers bike taxi services in more than 100 cities in India.
Fundings Raised
Rapido has raised around $310.4 million in its 10 rounds.
2015
- Rapido closed its first round of funding in 2015 and had raised $22.2K. It was the first seed round of the company
2016
- The company had raised funds through another seed round for an undisclosed amount.
2017
- It was the venture round where the company had raised Rs. 27.5 million.
- In the same year, in Nov, the company raised Rs. 21.4 million from Skycatcher, Thompson, and Taraz.
2018
- This was a Series A round where Skycatcher added more investment in Rapido by putting in $ 4 million.
2019
- Rapido had raised Rs. 526.7 million in their 6th round of funding from Astarc Ventures India, Technology fund, Integrated Capital, Ka Wing Kevin Kwong, and Skycatcher.
- In a similar year, two more rounds were conducted where the company had raised $ 11.2 million and Rs. 3.9 billion from Nexus Venture Partners and Westbridge Capital respectively.
2021
- The company has raised $52 million from West Bridge Capital in this 9th round.
2022
- In 2022, Rapido was acquired by food delivery partner “Swiggy” for $180 million.
Acquisition
Rapido has acquired two companies during their journey.
In 2018 the company acquired Getbike at an undisclosed price.
In 2019, Rapido acquired Vahanalytics.
Financials
The bike taxi service provider being a first mover in the industry has reported wider losses in the F.Y 22. The company has reported a loss of Rs. 439 crore. In contrast, the company has generated a 90% increase in revenue with Rs. 144.8 crore.
Reach
Rapido has increased its reach in just 8 years of its business launch. Today, the company operates a bike taxi business in more than 100 cities of India and has more than 15 lakh drivers aka Captains registered on Rapido. The company also has a strong customer base with around 15+ million customers to date. The company has, along with this, more than 20 million app downloads and 13+ million paid transactions.
Challenges
As every business has challenges whether they have a monopoly or first mover advantage, Rapido also faced many challenges while standing up in the Indian markets. Though Rapido was not the first bike-sharing company, players like Ola cab service and Uber have also launched their bike taxi services. In the competitive market, it was quite tough to build a brand and operate at the vase level. Further, the company has used some measures to ensure the Captain provides better service to the customer. For that company has built a track mechanism to track the speed of the Captain’s bike which was not an easy task. Also, people thought that bike rides were not safe.
Grievances loop
In order to provide customers with the best service and resolve their grievances, Rapido has built a feedback loop where customers can report their issues and get immediate response and action.
Competitors
As secondary competitors Uber, and Old are the major business competitors of Rapido, but since they are not involved in bike taxi service to that extent, other primary competitors of Rapido involves
GoKid
Grabtaxi
RideAmigos
Skoot
Snapbacks
ONN
Yulu
Future Plans
Rapido is looking to expansion of their business in more cities in India. The company currently operates in around 100+ cities. The company also focuses on improving customer experience. The company is also looking for subscription plans for customers who are regular.
Celebrity Campaign
The company has launched a celebrity campaign with well-known Bollywood celebrity Ranveer Singh and South hero Allu Arjun.
With the tagline “ Smart ho, toh Rapido”. The company aims to spread awareness about its bike taxi business and strengthen its market.
Conclusion
Rapido as a bike taxi service has made significant growth in terms of revenue and reach. The business model of the company is unique, despite competition in the market Rapido is one of the leading bike taxis in India. Customers find it easy to travel by bike as it allows them to reach on time and avoid the traffic issues. At the same time, comparatively, it is inexpensive compared to an auto taxi.
