Bike taxi startup Rapido has raised $180 million in a Series D round led by foodtech major Swiggy and joined by TVS Motor Company and existing investors Westbridge, Shell Ventures, and Nexus Ventures.
The financing values the company at $830 million, Moneycontrol has learnt from sources. Till date, Rapido has raised a total of over $310 million.
This round comes at a time when Swiggy’s rival Zomato has announced 10-minute food delivery.
Commenting on the funding, Rapido said: “Swiggy’s participation in this round will build on the synergies between the two companies. With a common mission to deliver superior customer experience through higher fleet availability, it will also provide additional earnings for both Swiggy’s delivery executives and Rapido’s captains.”
Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO of Swiggy, said: “Swiggy and Rapido share a vision to build a logistics platform that empowers riders through more opportunities and higher earnings. While we’ve already been working together, this investment facilitates closer alignment to leverage the synergies between the platforms and improve the value we provide to both consumers and delivery executives/captains across the country.”
With the funds, Rapido plans to enhance its technology, amplify and strengthen its teams across diverse sets of capabilities, increase overall supply in metros and Tier 1, 2, and 3 cities.
Further, the startup will be investing in all its three categories, bike-taxi, auto and delivery, to enhance its captain earnings and improve customer experience in 100 plus cities the company operates in.
Rapido was founded in 2015 by Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, and Rishikesh SR. Rapido Rental is a first-of-its-kind multi-stop bike rental to cater to people who have to complete multiple tasks at different locations and want to avoid the hassle of multiple bookings and waiting for the ride to arrive.
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