Electric mobility startup Yulu is ramping up efforts to close a gap in India’s gig economy — access to two-wheelers. Nearly 85 percent of gig workers don’t own a bike, often lacking a credit history or driving licence, making it difficult to secure loans or rentals, Yulu co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Amit Gupta has said.
“India, 85 percent of people don’t own bikes. They don’t have licences. But many of them are willing to work, what they lack is access, that’s where Yulu plays an important part” Gupta told Moneycontrol. “No educated, wealthy person becomes a gig worker. These are people from humble backgrounds. If we don’t provide infrastructure, they can’t work.”
Yulu is targeting around 20,000-25,000 bikes in Bengaluru city.
Demand from delivery players is surging and the company plans to triple its presence in key zones. “In some parts of Bengaluru, we’ve grown from 1,000 to 4,000 bikes. The next target is 10,000 in those same key areas. Overall we plan to have around 20,000-25,000 bikes in Bengaluru,” Gupta said.
While global expansion may come later via backers like Bajaj and Magna, India remains the priority. “India is not the same market it was 10 years ago. The depth and scale here are enough to build a massive company.”
Yulu started in 2017 as a clean shared mobility platform for short personal commutes but after covid, a new user segment emerged, delivery workers signing up with platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, Zepto, and Blinkit.
The quick commerce pivot
Yulu's annual revenue run-rate has surpassed $30 million, Gupta said, adding since the beginning of FY25, the firm has remained Ebitda positive.
"Pivoting to serving quick commerce and ecommerce has also help boost our revenues. We are way ahead of the $30-million mark now," he said.
Gupta and his team quickly pivoted, designing the Yulu Dex, an electric vehicle tailored for last-mile delivery.
That decision changed the startup’s trajectory. Of the 45,000 vehicles in Yulu’s fleet today, only about 4,000 are used by regular consumers. The rest serve gig workers, enabling them to deliver food, groceries, and services in cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad.
“Quick commerce changed the expectation of the Indian consumer,” said Gupta. “Platforms like Zepto and Blinkit proved you can deliver in 10 minutes, make money, and ensure gig workers earn a livelihood. That model changed everything.”
The transformation has been swift and far-reaching. “If you want to survive in any consumer business now, delivering in 15 minutes is non-negotiable.”
To serve this demand, Yulu has built a vertically integrated mobility stack, manufacturing with Bajaj Auto, operating over 60 rental hubs, and running its own battery-swapping network. Vehicles can be picked up in minutes with just a phone and Aadhaar card. No licence, EMI, or credit score needed.
“Using a petrol scooter for delivery today is economically stupid,” Gupta said. “Our daily rentals are cheaper than a tank of fuel.”
The tie-ups
Yulu’s partnerships are also becoming more embedded.
Delivery platforms like Zomato have integrated Yulu into their onboarding journeys. If a gig worker shows up without a vehicle, they’re routed directly to Yulu. In high-density micro-markets such as Gurgaon or Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru, Yulu controls 30–40 percent of the delivery fleet.
Gupta describes the company as the “AWS for gig workers”, providing plug-and-play vehicle infrastructure that enables anyone to start earning immediately. He was referring to Amazon Web Service, cloud computing platform that offers a range of services such as computing power, storage, databases and analytics.
Over 80 percent of Yulu users renew their weekly rental plans, and when they don’t, it’s often due to a break or festival, not dissatisfaction.
“In Gurgaon, 100 percent of the fleet for some Q-commerce players runs on Yulu,” Gupta said. “We’re not aggregators. We do the hard work of building and maintaining infrastructure. That’s our moat.”
Yulu’s vehicles, developed through more than 30 design iterations, are built to withstand high intensity use and are backed by real-time service support. If a battery runs out, gig workers can swap it in under a minute. If a bike breaks down, they get a replacement instantly.
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