Rapido created 70 lakh jobs in 9 years, adds 1.5 lakh monthly: co-founder Pavan Guntupalli

Guntupalli said, "Just a couple of months ago, for the first time in our nine-year journey, we completed a billion rides in this country. At the same time, in a category that faced many questions—bike taxis—we are now clocking more than a million rides in that single category. We also take pride in simple yet impactful initiatives, like installing seat belts in auto rickshaws."

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Guntupalli also said the company's focus is on urban mobility challenges. "We already have auto share services in cities like Bengaluru. We’re currently working on solutions to ease the commute in tier-1 cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai. Our goal is to enable better transport solutions and decongest roads through more sharing and leveraging existing infrastructure."

The panel discussion on 'Rising Stars'—startups blazing a trail across mobility, content, AI, and EV'—was moderated by Moneycontrol's Bhavya Dilipkumar and Tushar Goenka.

Pulkit Khurana, co-founder and CEO of Battery Smart, said, "Just a few days ago, we completed one lakh battery swaps in a day. This milestone shows the growth potential, with a 15-20 percent month-on-month increase. We also have a two lakh customer waitlist".

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"Our users, often bottom-of-the-pyramid commercial vehicle drivers like e-rickshaw drivers or food delivery workers, typically earn less than $10 a day. They spend 25-30 percent of their earnings on our services daily. Our value proposition must be strong enough to either add to their bottom line or ease their lives, which we’re striving to do by making EVs more affordable. They can buy a scooter at half the cost without a battery, eliminating any downtime for charging, allowing them to run more than 100 kilometers a day if they want to." he said.

Rohan Nayak, co-founder of Pocket FM, said they will be using Generative AI to create more value for content creators. "We’re in a period of significant change, shifting the balance toward creators to produce high-quality content. Fundraising is an outcome of our team's effort in building a new category of audio series. When we are just starting, we also have the freedom to innovate without any baggage. Even after raising funding, our daily operations remain focused. Indian users do pay for value, and India is the largest market in terms of paying users."

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Sanket Shah, founder and CEO of InVideo AI, highlighted India’s vast potential as a user base, noting that success requires delivering value at a price point suited to the market. "In India, businesses must cater to specific price points, as demonstrated by the cost differences in everyday items compared to other markets."

Shah also announced the upcoming launch of a homegrown AI model, built from scratch in India, which is expected to become widely used due to its scale. This model will be integrated into their product to help users create high-quality videos from imperfect content, with a release planned by the end of the year".

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