Rashi Agarwal was destined to be an entrepreneur. Born in a business family in Almora, Uttarakhand, where her father is a hotelier and a cloth wholesaler, Agarwal had “the entrepreneurial keeda (bug)” always in her head. But she did not join her father’s enterprise. A commerce graduate, she started working at 22, and spent seven years in S&P Capital IQ’s corporate bullpen, working as a senior research associate. In 2015 she founded her first venture — LetsFlaunt, a fashion portal. Despite it being profitable, it dawned upon her that the industry was a cluttered one, and would eventually stagnate.
It was at this juncture that she pivoted towards what became Zypp Electric. Initially launched as a start-up which facilitated electric mobility on rent, Agarwal and her husband, Akash Gupta, soon realised the potential of electrifying India’s last-mile delivery service. They took the plunge and according to her, “put all their eggs in one basket”.
Fast forward to the present day, their risk has paid off. Zypp Electric has a fleet of 3,000 vehicles; with around 2,800 drivers engaged with the company. It has a presence in Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad, and is growing at a run-rate of 30% month-on-month. During peak Covid, the business grew as last-mile delivery became indispensable for e-grocery and e-commerce firms. “We have spurted seven-fold in past 12 months,” she adds.
Agarwal dons many hats for her enterprise — she looks after procurement and supply, debt financing, compliance, HR, and finance. “We have added new clients like Zepto, Ola, Dash, Grab, Uber this year while Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Delhivery are running since last year,” she says.
The company leverages IoT, AI and ML to track vehicles and drivers and trace touchpoints where batteries can be swapped. It is reportedly expected to rake in revenues of over ₹25 crore in the current fiscal, a five-fold increase over its revenue in FY21. “Currently, we are passing 80-85% commissions to the rider—which varies from client to client, it could be anywhere between ₹13 and ₹60,” Agarwal explains, adding that the company also charges a rent of ₹3,000 from its drivers. In September 2021, it raised $7 million in a Series A round. “We are currently operationally profitable, but are burning cash for growth, which is around ₹1 crore every month,” says Agarwal.
Going ahead, Zypp Electric is targeting a footprint in nine cities by the end of March 2023, with around 34,000 vehicles on ground—an 11x growth in a year. Within the next three years, it aims to be in 25 cities across the country with a six-digit (1,00,000) fleet size. — Rishi Kant