Bike taxi cum last mile delivery startup NOW bags funding from Hero Electric’s promoters

Last mile delivery startup NOW has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the promoters of Hero Electric. Existing investors Maple Capital Advisor and angel investor Vinay Goyal also contributed to the round.

The Noida-based company will deploy capital to strengthen operations and spruce-up technology infrastructure.

NOW offers on-demand bike rides and food, grocery, medicines, and other deliveries. It claims to facilitate 2,500 deliveries a day. The company has diluted a minority stake in the latest round of financing, reports Dealstreet Asia.

Earlier in March 2016, NOW had bagged $500K from Jaipuria Group’s managing director Ruchirans Jaipuria, Supreme Motors’ director Anuj Sanghi,  Maple Capital Advisors and Abhinav Grover.

“We started a pilot with e-bikes late last year and realised the unit economics on electric vehicles are exemplary. With the support and maintenance from Hero Electric, it has proved to be a great success. Not only are we operating profitably, we are also helping the environment and helping people from lower income strata move from bicycles to electric vehicles and the ones from petrol bikes to electric which is undeniably the future,” said Vivek Pandey, founder and CEO, NOW to Dealstreet Asia.

Founded by Vivek Pandey, Bharat Khandelwal (ex-Times Internet), Sushant Arora (ex Flipkart), Prateek Singla (ex- Tinyowl), and Harpal Singh (ex Knowlarity) - NOW has a partnership with over 500 riders including hundreds of merchants.

The company also claims to turn profitable in Delhi (NCR) and now plans to expand its offerings to other cities.

A quick look at bike-taxi segment

Bike taxis are majorly popular in South East Asian countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, however, Indian counterparts have found it tough to keep afloat.

Many startups including Yaya, Dot, TuWheelz, Rideji had, Mtaxi had shut their operations. Regulation, lack of funding and entry of heavyweights - Ola and Uber created bloodbath in the sector.