Exclusive: Rapido all set to raise $50 Mn in fresh round

Mobility startups have been at the receiving end of the pandemic since April 2020. Besides the loss of business, they have been unable to raise fresh capital in the past year. However, bike taxi and logistics startup Rapido is set to score a new round.

Rapido is all set to mop up $50 million in a fresh round from new and existing investors, according to three sources aware of the details of the deal. 

“Rapido has already raised $30 million from WestBridge while $20 million more has been committed by new and existing investors including Nexus Venture Partners and Motherson,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity.

The fresh capital for the five-year-old company has come after a gap of 20 months. Rapido had raised $55 million in its Series B round led by WestBridge Capital in August 2019.

The fresh proceeds will help the Bengaluru-based company to streamline its operations and score a lead on its competition such as Ola Bike and Uber Moto. At present, Rapido provides bike taxis service in close to 100 cities and has managed to get decent traction in smaller cities. It recently launched an hourly rental service in six major cities.

Besides bike taxi, it has also frayed into on-demand auto hailing service in December. Rapido has been enabling last-mile delivery for e-commerce companies for about two years.

“The round is almost certain and likely to be announced anytime soon,” said the second source who also wished not to be named as talks are private. “Sound unit economics is one of the primary drivers for existing investors to double down their stakes in Rapido.”

Rapido declined to comment for the story while queries sent to WaterBridge, Nexus and Motherson did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post in case they do.

While the company had posted a loss of Rs 243.6 crore during FY20, its topline shot up 10X to Rs 106.5 crore during the period. Comparatively, its revenue was much better than the majority of growth-stage startups of its age.

Excluding this new round, Rapido has raised over $75 million across two institutional rounds. The company had also facilitated exits to its early backers, including angels, during its last fundraise. 

In a recent interview, Rapido claimed to have achieved about 75% of its pre-Covid volume. However, with the lockdown and curfew restrictions in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, its business is likely to be disrupted again.