Car-sharing startup Revv has raised Rs 100 crore in a Series B funding round led by Hyundai Motor. Revv's existing investors Edelweiss and Beenext also participated in the round, with new investors Dream Incubator, Sunjay Kapoor of Sona BLW and Telama Investment.
Revv is amongst the largest car sharing platforms in India with a presence in 11 cities, serving more than 300 thousand users. Its products include hourly self-drive car sharing, one-way outstation car sharing and Switch – India's first monthly car subscription program, where members enjoy the benefits of car ownership without the hassle, upkeep and commitment.
With its strategic investment in Revv, Hyundai Motor gains its first foothold in the Indian car-sharing market. Hyundai Motor's blueprint is to co-develop the company's new growth engine by developing innovative mobility services that combine technologies such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence with the sharing economy to transform people's lives.
“We are just about to step forward and expand our business into the future mobility field with Revv. Hyundai Motor India will build a prominent system with both ‘Open Innovation' strategy and India's fastest growing self-drive car-sharing company, Revv,” said Y K Koo, MD and CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd.
“The strategic investment by Hyundai Motor validates our belief in the innovation and execution performance shown by Revv. This partnership further strengthens Revv's capabilities and the growth trajectory in India while opening up avenues for global partnerships through Hyundai's network,” stated Pranav Parikh, managing partner and head, Edelweiss Private Equity.
“India is unlike other developing countries of comparable size, with its unusually low levels of car ownership. 2% of Indians own cars – the same number in China and US is 20% and 80%, respectively. For the other 98%, cabs solve the problem of going from point A to B, but almost every other need that a personal car would serve is an unsolved problem. For example, having a car for a travel-heavy day, or having it for a few months on a temporary outstation assignment, or even having it for several years in an affordable and flexible manner, which is not possible with conventional solutions. This is the white space that we aim to fill. This is about truly democratising 4W mobility, and taking India's 2% car ownership to 50% car access.”
“Switch, our car subscription product has been a strong driver of our growth. It was the first product of its kind in India, and currently comprises almost 30% of our fleet. We believe that long-duration products similar to Switch could comprise anywhere between 50-70% of our fleet in future.”
The company will use the freshly infused funds to expand its product offerings for both long-duration and on-demand use cases, strengthen its technology team and build brand awareness. It also plans to increase its geographical footprint to 30 cities during the next 12 months.
The market growth potential for mobility services is stronger in India than that of any other global market, expanding to US$2 billion by 2020. Furthermore, millennial, who are heavy users of car-sharing services, comprise 35% of the total population of India.
