Exclusive: Young India is renting more than ever before! Myles to be net positive by 2017

Indians buy 2.5 million cars every year, and use it only 20% of the time. If you’re a young professional who does frequent off-sites, or can’t afford one, car rentals are cheaper and more convenient. India is waking up to that realization, and fast.

However, India’s rental market has long been fragmented. The business is now taking a structured form, and expanding to include more categories including clothes, accessories and more.

This trend has been fueled by the 22 to 35 year old young professional who mostly works in metros or tier-1 cities, and earns over Rs.5 lakhs. The idea is, if you can’t own a Mercedes, rent one. Indians are lapping it up, and VCs are pumping serious money into rental-based startups.

“We are at an inflection point. There is a massive market that needs consolidation”, Carzonrent MD-CEO Rajiv Vij said. Its self-driving business Myles is seeing 30% month-on-month growth, and is looking at a revenue of Rs. 325 Crores is the coming fiscal. This would make it net positive.

“Myles is net positive operationally. We are looking to be net positive by March 2017. We’ll also expand to over 5000 cars”, Sakshi Vij, ‎Founder-CEO at Myles said.

Myles is also in the market to raise fresh capital, around $15-20 million. This will allow it to grow further. It currently competes with Bengaluru-based, Sequoia Capital-backed Zoomcar and US-based car rental major Avis among others.

Like many rental-based startups, Myles is looking to further get into the franchisee mode to grow its business. Sakshi says Indian car manufacturers are also opening up to the idea of car-sharing.

“Manufacturers from across the world, ranging from Mercedes, BMW to Toyota own stakes in car-sharing networks. This is a logical extension to their business. Over the next 3-4 months, the manufacturers will hold an equally big chunk in our business”, she said.

Myles, which started with just 14 cars, has expanded to over 1,000 cars across 23 cities. This is only a fraction of India's car rental, taxis and self-drive industries that currently have a fleet strength of about 800,000-900,000. The figure is estimated to cross 1.5 million vehicles by 2020.