On-demand driver provider DriveU raises pre-Series-A round

On-demand private driver service DriveU has raised $3 million in pre-Series-A funding round led by Singhal Foundation, a non-profit organisation founded by Amit Singhal.

The Bengaluru-based startup also saw participation from the existing investor Unitus Seed Fund, Geoff Wooley of Patamar Ventures, Rajeev Madhavan of Clear Ventures and a few Silicon Valley-based investors, reports ET.

Launched by an early backer of TaxiForSure, the startup had raised about $1 million from Unitus Seed Fund and undisclosed angel investors from the Silicon Valley.

The latest funding has come after a long gap of two years. DriveU was looking for a funding for quite some time. In an interview with BusinessLine co-founder Ramprasad “Rahm” Shastry said that they are looking to close a Series A round of Rs 30 crore by March/April in 2017.

Founded in July 2015 by Rahm, Ashok Shastry, and Amulmeet Singh, DriveU offers a technology-driven, on-demand, affordable, private driver service. It has more than 6,000 drivers on its platform and aims to reach the figure of 10,000 drivers by the end of 2018.

Available on app and web, a customer can book the nearest available DriveU driver and can also track while the driver is on his way to the customer’s pickup location. Once a booking is confirmed, all the necessary information such as driver’s name, picture, rating, phone number, location, distance from customer’s pick up point and estimated time of arrival is provided.

So far, DriveU had acquihired three rivals operating in the same niche. Last year, it bought DriversKart and Gurgaon-based CallAtHome in 2016. The last acquihire for the company was Zuver.

According to Rahm, DriveU currently operating in six cities (especially Tier I such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, others), doing about 1,000 trips a day. With the fresh round, it plans to expand to another four to six cities.