Rapido raises $180 mn in funding round led by Swiggy, TVS Motor

Rapido, auto and bike taxi aggregator, has raised $180 million in its latest funding round, led by new investors Swiggy and TVS Motor Company along with some existing investors. The latest series D round funding, which also saw participation from existing investors such as Westbridge, Shell Ventures, and Nexus Ventures, catapulted the company's valuation to $830 million.

Bike taxi platform said that the funds would be leveraged to boost Rapido’s technology, amplify and strengthen its teams across diverse sets of capabilities. It would also help increase overall supply to create an enhanced consumer experience across a larger audience base in metros, tier 1, 2, and 3 cities, and ensure a seamless last-mile connectivity, the app-based aggregator added.

“This will fortify Rapido’s presence to provide a convenient, safe, accessible, and affordable alternative mode of daily commuting. Rapido will be investing these funds in all its three categories, viz. bike-taxi, auto and delivery, to enhance its captain earnings and improve customer experience in 100+ cities the company operates in,” Rapido said in a press release on Friday.

As per the release, Swiggy’s participation in the funding 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, it said.

Announcing the fund-raising, Aravind Sanka, Co-Founder, Rapido, “We, at Rapido, are grateful to our existing and new investors for giving impetus to our vision. We look forward to learning from Swiggy’s experience to scale up throughout the country and enhance our captains’ / customers’ experience, who are the backbone of our business.

“Besides, TVS Motor, who are very passionate about EVs and the future of mobility, will help us in further expansion. We hope to accelerate our pace of becoming a household name as we increase our geographies and services, on the backbone of our robust, global-standard technology,” Sanka added.

“We hold a lot of respect for the resilience Rapido has displayed in transforming the mobility and logistics space in India,” said Sriharsha Majety, Co-founder and CEO of Swiggy.

“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,” he added.

The blitzscaling brand has been constantly recording accumulative growth and has raised $130 mn in the past from various investors due to its efficient service delivery. Rapido is currently present in around 100 cities across the country with over 25 million customers and over 1.5 million Captains (driver-partners). At present, the company has grown more than 2.5x to pre-pandemic levels by maintaining market leadership in its core category.

JM Financial Limited acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Rapido for this fund raise.