The last-mile commute has been challenging across the top 10 cities in India because of spurt in traffic, inadequate public transport and poor infrastructure. This problem is getting aggravated with each passing days, but a slew of startups see it as a huge opportunity.
Bike taxis such as Rapido and scooter rental companies including Bounce, Vogo and Yulu have been solving the last mile commute headache. While Rapido, Bounce and Vogo are in the market to raise three digits round ($100 million-plus) at the towering valuations, Yulu continues to raise small rounds on regular intervals.
Last month, the Bengaluru-based company had raised about Rs 55 crore from Bajaj Auto. Following the investment, Bajaj Auto Limited holds 16.67% equity in Yulu.
According to regulatory filings with MCA, the company has allotted 13,865 Series A CCPS shares for Rs 39,812 per share. Importantly, Yulu was valued at around Rs 276 crore in the Series A round. A valuation report filed by the company shows that it allotted shares to Bajaj Auto at the same valuation ~ Rs 276 crore ~ as on 31st May 2019.
For the unaware, Yulu offers two vehicles on rent: a lithium-powered scooter, Yulu Miracle, that can go up to 25 km top speed and a smart bike – Yulu Move. The company claims to receive 30,000-35,000 rides daily, of which 12,000-13,000 come from its e-scooters.
With the Series A round, Yulu eyes to increase its fleet size to 100,000 electric two-wheelers by December 2020. Currently, it has 15,000 electric scooters across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and some limited areas of Bhubaneshwar and Delhi.
Investment from the automobile giant is more of a strategic nature for both companies as Yulu is leveraging Bajaj to build hardware for charging and make vehicles anti-theft and IoT-enabled. Besides Bajaj, the firm had tied up with Uber to allow users to access its services.
Entrackr sources have been emphasising that Yuly may end up raising strategic capital from Uber as well. The deal is likely to be on lines with cab-hailing app’s deal with the US-based scooter rental company Lime. While the talks with Uber has been on for several months, sources hint that it’s progressing well and may materialise early next year.
