Exclusive: Shuttl begins testing international market with Thailand

Mobility businesses across the globe have been hit severely by the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides Ola, Uber, Rapido, Bounce and Vogo, Gurugram-based Shuttl has been facing the loss of business since a major chunk of companies are yet to open offices.

Amidst disruption in operations, office commute platform Shuttl has started testing the overseas market. “Shuttl has been preparing for the launch in Bangkok for the past few months. It has hired close to half a dozen to form a local team,” said a source on condition of anonymity. 

Entrackr has independently confirmed Shuttl’s hiring in Bangkok through LinkedIn. Kong Apinun Thongpradit was the country manager for Shuttl between May and October. Recently, he moved from the company to launch his startup.

The expansion has come at a time when Shuttl has been hit severely by the pandemic. According to sources, the company has recovered to some extent in terms of business in the past three-four months, but it’s below 50% in comparison of pre-Covid peak.

“A separate app (initially iOS) for the Thailand market is underway,” added another source, requesting anonymity. “Shuttl’s existing investor Toyota is strong in Thailand and it has been helping the company in raising local support and team.”

Shuttl’s new position also confirms its global ambition. “Shuttl is the world’s no.1 office bus app,” as per this description. Entrackr’s detailed questionnaire sent to the company’s co-founders Amit Singh and Deepanshu Malviya didn’t yield any immediate response. We will update the story as and when they respond.

It’s worth noting that Shuttl has become the second mobility startup to foray into the international market. Ola has been running operations in Australia, UK, Bangladesh and Srilanka. Other notable Indian consumer internet companies with global operations include Byju’s, CarDekho, Meesho, Practo and a few others.

To cope with the pandemic, Shuttl had laid off over 40 employees and slashed salaries across functions in March this year. The company recently expanded its ESOPs pool by adding Rs 24.1 crore worth options. With the addition, Shuttl’s ESOPs pool has now been worth Rs 122 crore.

Founded in 2015, Shuttl has raised about $90 million in total equity and debt capital from investors such as Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Sequoia, Lightspeed, Amazon and Dentsu among others. According to Fintrackr, the company had surpassed Rs 1500 crore in valuation during its last tranche of the Series C round in January 2020.