Indian Self Drive Car company Zoomcar raises $8 million in a funding by US based Sequoia Capital. Zoomcar a Bangalore based self drive car sharing company has so far raised $ 11 million. They initially raised $ 3 million from Empire Angels, FundersClub and Basset Investment Group, and funds advised by Triangle Growth Partners. Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai and Manipal Group’s head of corporate affairs Abhay Jain, participated in the funding round.
This is the first car rental company in the country to focus exclusively on self-driven cars. Most of the car rental companies in India are focused on chaufer driven cars. Zoomcar has broken the trend and come up with a highly innovative self drive car concept, initially started in Bangalore in February 2013 with 7 vehicles. They now have a fleet of 250 cars in Bangalore and Pune. With almost negligible marketing they have grown huge and are expected to cross 1500 car fleet in a short span of time.
The company provides self drive cars from as low as INR 60 per hour to a higher segment car for INR 195 per hour. They have a fleet providing vehicles from a Mahindra Reva to a BMW, which can be easily booked online as well as from the smartphones on ios and android. The company has broken a lot many bottle-necks in this industry and have structured all the paperwork, identification system and payment process. The startup will invest the funds in technology, hiring and for launch in new cities over the next one year.