Bengaluru-based car and bike hire company Drivezy India Travels Pvt. Ltd has crossed monthly gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $4 million (about ₹27 crore), according to a top company executive. The company’s fleet comprises 15,000 bikes and 4,000 cars.
“We net around 22% of the $4-million monthly GMV,” said Drivezy’s chief executive Ashwarya Singh over phone.
The company also launched a franchise on Monday through which it plans to provide cars and bikes worth ₹2.8 crore to potential owners for up to three years. It looks to establish over 100 franchise units across 21 cities over the next 12 months, it said in a statement.
Drivezy will provide customer relationship management infrastructure, marketing, branding and customer care support to franchise owners in exchange for a 25% commission on every booking.
Drivezy allows users to locate and book bikes and cars on its mobile app and through its website. Users can pick up a vehicle at designated spots, with the option to either use it for a short duration or hire it for up to 30 days.
The company has set aside $1.5 million to invest in its franchise business, and will also provide vocational and technical training to executives hired by the franchises.
Since its launch in 2015, Drivezy (formerly JustRide) added 150 pick-up and drop locations in 11 cities, including in Mumbai, Pune, Mysore and Delhi.
Singh said the company is now in the process of adding 5,000 two-wheelers to its fleet in the next month. “We want to focus more on two-wheelers, because that is where most of our new acquisitions are coming from.”
It is adding pick-up stations across Bengaluru. “We believe that whoever is able to capture real estate in this business in a city would be an overall winner maybe four to five years down the line,” added Singh.
Drivezy does not own vehicles on its platform; instead it partners with individual owners, asset management companies, commercial fleet operators and automobile dealerships to enlist their vehicles on its platform.
It had announced a $100 million asset financing deal, which is currently parked in a special purpose entity called Harbourfront Capital, which was established in collaboration with AnyPay in November. It has so far raised $40 million from investors such as Das Capital, Y Combinator and White Unicorn Ventures.
“Around $78 million is left from our $100 million asset financing fundraise. Around 60% of that $78 million will go into two-wheelers and the rest will go into cars over the next 7-8 months,” he said.
Drivezy competes with self-drive rental startups such as Zoomcar and Revv, which offer vehicles on a subscription-based model. Mint reported last month that Drivezy and Zoomcar held talks for an equal merger deal amid Zoomcar’s ongoing $500 million fundraise.
Zoomcar had reported revenues of ₹158 crore with losses of ₹116 crore in the financial year ended March 2018, according to documents sourced from business information platform Paper.vc.
Bengaluru-based Revv, on the other hand, reported revenues of ₹15.5 crore in FY18 and losses of ₹2.9 crore, as per documents sourced from Paper.vc.
This article was first published on livemint.com