Xiaomi and Shunwei are investing Rs 50 Cr in bus tracking app Chalo

The investment arm of Xiaomi, Shunwei Capital had raised a $1.21 billion fund in November last year, promising a significant chunk, approx $1 billion to be invested in India.

The first startup to get a piece of this cake is Chalo.com. The daily commute solutions startup has been in talks with both parent Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital to raise funds.

The duo is reportedly picking up close to 10 per cent stake in the company for around Rs 50 crore.

The investee is apparently valued at Rs 500 crore for the round. With this deal, several initial investors of Chalo.com are expected to get exits from the company.

Founded by Vinayak Bhavnani and Mohit Dubey in 2014, the startup helps people navigate through the daily schedules of buses, trains, and metros in 15 cities. The application also allows users to track their buses and figure out the actual arrival time of them in real time.

The target demographic is mostly tier II and tier III cities including the likes of Jaipur, Jabalpur, Indore, Lucknow, Bhopal, Agra, Kochi, Mathura among others. Presently, it only serves two metros - Kolkata and Mumbai.

This investment re-establishes the Chinese perspective of getting bullish on applications that majorly focus on tier II and III cities, that bring forth the next 500 million users in India to their platforms.

For Xiaomi this is the 11th investment in the country, Shunwei, on the other hand, has executed investments in 17 Indian startups, and this will be its 18th. Together they have poured funds in over 10 startups like KrazyBee, Hungama, ZestMoney, and Sharechat among others.