Bengaluru-based bike taxi services provider, Rapido, is said to be in talks with Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi, to raise $75 million (around Rs. 550 crore) in funds as part of its next round of funding that could see the company being valued at around $300-$350 million (around Rs. 2,000-2,500 crore). According to ET, Rapido might raise around $100 million in this round with additional funding from a number of other investors, including existing ones like China’s Shunwei Capital, as well as new ones that are yet to be named.
According to a source quoted by the publication, “Rapido is growing really fast and while they are not reaching profitability, they have still been able to maintain margins well”. There’s no word on who all are interested to invest in this round apart from Xiaomi and Shunwei, but the company is said to have earlier raised about $55 million at a valuation of close to $150 million from investors like Westbridge Capital, BAce Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. The company is also believed to have received substantial investments from Hero MotoCorp chairman, Pawan Munjal, and former Google India head, Rajan Anandan.
In case you don’t know it already, Rapido is an online bike taxi aggregator (Android, iOS) founded in 2015 by three IIT alumni, Aravind Sanka, Rishikesh S R and Pavan Guntupalli. It originally started operations in Bengaluru before expanding to around 80-90 cities around the country. Recent reports suggest that the company is currently doing more than 5 million rides per day, which is a significant increase from the 30,000 daily rides it was reportedly offering on an average late last year.
