Rapido raises Rs 391 Cr led by WestBridge; valuation crosses Rs 1,000 Cr

Bike taxi startup Rapido is moving rapidly. The four-year-old firm has scaled up to roughly four million monthly rides and has expanded its operations to over 30 cities across seven states. It also has been in an advanced discussion to raise a mega-round. As anticipated earlier, Rapido has scooped up Rs 391 crore Series B round led by WestBridge Capital.

The company has passed a special resolution approving the issue of 28,387 Series B CCPS shares priced at Rs 1,37,692 each (Rs100 Face value + Rs 137,592 Premium), as per its RoC filings with MCA. WestBridge Capital has invested Rs 222.6 crore while Nexus has contributed about Rs 56 crore. Existing investors - Integrated Capital Growth Limited will be investing about Rs 7 crores, while a few other backers have also participated in the ongoing round.

Alibaba-backed venture capital firm BAce Capital has poured in Rs 21 crore in this round alongside a new investor, Shunwei who will be contributing Rs 42 crores for a 4.18% stake.

Sabre Investment Consultants, Rashmi Kwatra, and five others will also be joining the financing round.

Post this round, WestBridge will have 22.15% stake in the company while Nexus will hold 12.54%. According to post shareholding structure after this round, the valuation of the company has crossed Rs 1,005 crore.

In January this year, Rapido had closed Series A round led by Integrated Capital Growth and existing investors. India Technology Fund, Motherson Lease Solutions, including 20 High Networth Individuals (HNIs) also participated in the first institutional round.

Previously, it secured a Pre Series A round from several bluechip angels such as Rajan Anandan, Pawan Munjal (Chairman of Hero MotoCorp), Anupam Mittal, Harish Bahl, Ankit Nagori and others.

Of late, bike taxi companies have been facing a lot of regulatory wrath from several state governments. Rapido along with Ola and Uber bike taxis were banned in Karnataka this year. The company also face two weeks ban in Tamil Nadu. However, it resumed its operations in the southern state after a court order.