Rashi Agarwal graduated recently from Google’s accelerator programme. Zypp Electric, which she co-founded with former Airtel and MobiKwik executive Akash Gupta in 2017 and which offers eco-friendly delivery options to e-commerce giants and local grocers, today has a fleet of 8,000 electric vehicles in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. And that’s what caught Google’s attention.
Zypp provides businesses with EVs, drivers, EV charging infrastructure, and maintenance support for last mile delivery. It also offers electric bike subscriptions for delivery executives. But crucial to this is their technology platform that enables the entire fleet management. It can also figure out the charge levels of the vehicle batteries. There’s a merchant panel that allows merchants to create deliveries, track deliveries, locate riders near them, and also manage the payouts. Existing merchant platforms can be easily linked to Zypp through APIs. In the accelerator programme, Google mentors helped Rashi improve the UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) in order to boost conversions and usage. They also provided guidance on creating a full AI roadmap.
“Electric vehicles are the present and future. That is where techies are needed and good tech talent can create a difference. We have a group of exceptional people who have served as our compass throughout the journey,” Rashi says.
Rashi and Akash have a team of 550 people. The in-house team builds the tech needed for the fleet, for the rider, for QR code management. The team has made the entire fleet IoT-enabled. Finding the right person for the right job, Rashi says, is a real challenge for any startup founder. “And with such fast paced operations, you need to make a quick call about the right hire,” she says.
It has been far from a smooth ride for Rashi and Akash. They had initially wanted to start a dockless cycle service – one that people could use for short trips. But they realised that infrastructure, weather and general mindset were not conducive to cycling. That’s when they switched to EVs. Their EV bike rental business had barely started to pick up when Covid struck.
But Rashi couldn’t imagine giving up. “When you are a participant in an endeavour that has global significance, such as the aim to reduce carbon emissions, you are never in a position to give up,” she says.
During the lockdown, they started getting requests from local grocers for last mile delivery. Soon, even big e-commerce players started using their services, and the business started to grow. Zypp today does last-mile delivery for more than 50 major e-commerce, food, and grocery players, including Zomato, Swiggy, Zepto, Blinkit, BigBasket, Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, PharmEasy, Delhivery, and Spencers.
But there are plenty of challenges still. The EV ecosystem is nascent, and finding partners to supply them the right vehicles is an issue. “Even though last mile delivery costs are high (with petrol vehicles), many have not switched to EVs due to lack of credible options,” Rashi says.
However, the Google programme, she says, has provided them with a clearer vision and greater confidence.
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