The crowd and traffic in Indian cities remains a matter of concern. The roads are congested beyond comfort and the number of private owned vehicles only actively contribute to the record pollution levels. Although the government has come up with a few policies in the metropolitan cities, none seems to have stuck around for too long.
A mass transition to the use of public transport systems seems like the most viable solution. But these too come with its own challenges. The last of first and last mile connectivity remains one of the main reasons people opt to travel in private vehicles.
Having faced similar situations while traveling to new cities, Hiranmay Mallick, Narayan Mishra, and Monalisha Thakur founded Tummoc in 2016.
Tummoc is a Bengaluru-based transit application that provides real-time public transport information and first and last mile connectivity. It also helps in multimodal journey planning and has ticket purchasing options as well.
Mallick, founder and CEO told Entrackr, “This single application will tell you how to plan your journey using all modes of public transport that is available in the city to reach from point A to B.”
If the city has services like Uber or Rapido available, then it leads the user to these applications for first and last mile connectivity. If these services are not available, it shows the directions to walk to the nearest bus stops. It then shows the metro lines and stops helping the user to reach their destination.
An additional problem that most public transport users face is the constant change of delay in the buses and trains. To solve this problem, Tummoc works closely with the BMTC and the DTC to track the buses real time in order to give the closest estimated time to the user.
“We are not competitors to the DMRC app; rather we work complementing them. If in the future they want our data, we would be happy to share it with them, as their technology partners.” Mallick said.
The app has a cumulative of 2.5 million users, out of which 60% are from Bangalore and is available over 18 different cities. It plans on expanding to 100 cities in the next 12 months and reach a total of 10 million users by the end of FY24. As a first step it plans on onboarding a total of 4 lakh users in the next couple of months.
The company claims the platform sees over 60,000 daily active users and about 350,000 monthly users with 60% of it being organic users.
Tummoc has raised a total of $1.2 million over two funding rounds of which the latest was held in January 2022. The company is backed by angel investors including Vineet Singh, Krishna Dhakshinamoorthy, Alan Aim, and Deependra Bisht. It is in the process of raising another round of funding as well.
As part of its expansion plans it aims at integrating inter and intra state ticket purchasing and strengthening its interstate journey planning on the app. It is also looking at onboarding local companies that provide first and last mile connectivity.
“We are also looking at introducing a single ticket or QR code for the user’s entire multi-modal commute. This should be up and ready to go in a few months as well.” Mallick said.
