A reliable and trustworthy transport service for kids has always been an issue and very few attempts have been made by startups to solve this pain of parents who worry about their kids’ safety during travel to day-care, school or after-school activities.
But a Bengaluru-based startup, PiggyRide, is now trying to solve this problem by offering a customisable transport service for kids between the age of 2-18 years.
Operational for over eight months now, PiggyRide has managed to raise Rs 7.5 crore in seed funding led by JAFCO Investment Asia Pacific.
Founded by former Koovs co-founder Manish Tewari and Rohan Kaushal, PiggyRide has also raised funds from angels such as InMobi’s Naveen Tewari, Livspace co-founders Ramakant Sharma & Anuj Srivastava, Goldman Sachs MD Niladri Mukhopadhyay, Zipdial’s Amiya Pathak and EzCred’s Sachin Maheshwari.
For now, the startup primarily serves kids from more than 50 academies, schools, daycares, and coaching institutes. With the seed funding round, it will launch services in Delhi (NCR) this month.
The company provides services like offering the parents an option to track their children through the mobile app that includes features such as GPS tracking, on-demand video surveillance, geo-fencing, panic button and car immobiliser, among others.
It also ensures a 15-step verification process that includes a rigorous background check and police verification of the drivers while onboarding them to ensure maximum security for the kids who use their services.
Also, to allay parents’ concerns, it has deployed technologies which can detect and score the behaviour of the driver.
Growing at 100% every month, PiggyRide claims to clock in about 1,000 rides on average with about 27 trips per user, said the company in a press statement.
Post this raise, PiggyRide is looking to raise another $5 million to expand operations to Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai in six months with a target to touch 5,000 rides a day.
PiggyRide is also building a local discovery platform for kids activities through a trusted community of parents using its services where they will be able to book services after reading other parents ratings and reviews.
