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Domestic car sharing marketplace <keyword id="6368965" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="zoomcar" source="Orion">Zoomcar</keyword> on Friday announced to elevate <keyword id="6396074" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nirmal-nr" source="Orion">Nirmal NR</keyword> as the CEO for <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> market. Working as President for Growth and Marketplace at Zoomcar, <keyword id="4244" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="nirmal" source="Orion">Nirmal</keyword> will now be responsible for all aspects of growth, operations and customer experience for the company in the country. "His diverse skillsets and seasoned leadership will play an instrumental role in continuing to scale the India business," said Greg Moran, CEO and Co-Founder, Zoomcar. With more than 10,000 cars already on the platform across several cities, the company expects to grow the platform to over 50,000 cars and 100 cities this year. At present, Zoomcar offers individual vehicle owners a joining bonus of Rs 10,000 along with additional incentives tied to high quality host ratings on the platform. A Zoomcar also offers enhanced incentives for the host's initial time on the marketplace. "At Zoomcar, we're currently sitting on the cusp of a dramatic transformation within personal mobility," said Nirmal. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Zoomcar employs over 300 people and operates in 50 cities pan-India and four countries globally. In 2020, it launched <keyword id="9746140" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="zoomcar-mobility-services" source="Orion">Zoomcar Mobility Services</keyword>, the Company's enterprise SaaS based mobility solution to vehicle OEMs and insurance companies. In November last year, Zoomcar completed a $92 million private placement led by New York City-based SternAegis Ventures, along with participation from other investors. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/bajaj-chetak-is-now-available-in-20-cities-checkout-price-features-and-other-details/slidelist/89661825.cms">Bajaj Chetak is now available in 20 cities — Checkout price, features and other details</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/adani-group-all-set-to-acquire-new-space-for-thiruvananthapuram-airport/articleshow/89660137.cms">Adani Group all set to acquire new 'space' for Thiruvananthapuram airport</a>

Car sharing platform Zoomcar elevates Nirmal NR as India CEO

<ul><li><keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="zoomcar">Zoomcar</keyword> is partnering with <keyword id="6433699" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ixigo">Ixigo</keyword>, an online travel booking service, to reach its 130 million users. </li><li>Co-found of Ixigo Rajnish Kumar predicts that car rentals with be "one of the biggest travel trends this year." </li><li>The partnership will help Zoomcar meet its goal to double the demand of its services by the end of the current fiscal year. </li></ul>Zoomcar, a self drive car rental service, just announced that it's partnering with Ixigo reach more users while betting on car rentals to be a travel trend this year. The partnership will give Zoomcar access to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/50-of-indias-travel-to-beonline-by-2020-ixigo/articleshow/49060256.cms">Ixigo</a>'s 130 million users as well as the latter's 200 million monthly travel searches as users plan their vacation. "Indian travellers are increasingly opting for a holistic and exclusive vacation experience making on-demand car rentals one of the biggest travel trends of the year," stated Co-founder of Ixigo Rajnish Kumar. Zoomcar has 10,000 cars with plans to expand its fleet to 25,000 cars by the end of year. It also plans to double the demand for its services by the end of the current fiscal. Currently, <a href="https://www.zoomcar.com/bangalore/">Zoomcar</a> has 4.8 million users and clocks over 3,000 rides daily. As an incentive, Zoomcar is also offering a launch discount of 20% on bookings through Ixigo. Users can book a Zoomcar for an hour, a day, a week or even a whole month. Car rentals in India While the market for car rentals in India is growing, it's not quite mainstream yet. "Such collaborations, we believe, will pave the way for the mainstreaming of alternative mobility services, ensuring that users get a seamless experience," said Greg Moran, CEO and Co-Founder of Zoomcar. Last year, Zoomcar raised $40 million through Series-C round headed by Mahindra and Mahindra Limited. Sequoia Capital, Empire Angles and Nokia Growth Partners are also a part of the investor portfolio. "We are looking at closing the Series D round by the second half of this year," Moran told<a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/auto/zoomcar-allows-users-to-try-electric-vehicles-at-short-term-rentals-says-ceo-greg-moran-4052071.htm"> CNBC TV18,</a> Zoomcar started off by owning the cars that it was renting out but switched over an asset light model when it realised that the maintenance and and owning costs were having a heavy impact on its margins. So, the company introduced peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace called 'ZAP' where users can put up their own cars to be rented by other users on the platform. Even so, Zoomcar registered ₹116 crore in loss during last fiscal year's earnings, according to its financial data filed with the Registrar of Companies. But its revenue also showed a yearly growth of 31% from ₹120 crore in FY17 to ₹158 crore in FY18. Zoomcar is also pushing electric vehicles (EVs) on its platform in partnership with Tata Tigor expressing its support for the Indian government's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india-now-plans-to-make-evs-comprise-15-of-all-vehicles-sales-by-2023/articleshow/65717759.cms">initiative</a> to convert all vehicles to EVs by 2030. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/ola-will-race-zoomcar-in-self-drive-car-rentals-with-a-500-million-bet/articleshow/68614269.cms">Ola will race Zoomcar in self-drive car rentals with a $500 million bet</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/self-drive-car-in-india-will-supersede-high-volume-sales-of-cars-heres-how/articleshow/60100149.cms">Self-drive car in India will supersede high volume sales of cars. Here's how.</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/flipkart-amazon-zomato-partner-with-delhi-government-to-deliver-via-electric-vehicles/articleshow/69968501.cms">Flipkart, Amazon, Zomato and others partner with Delhi government to deliver via electric vehicles</a>

Zoomcar eyes a shortcut to 130 million users — partners with Ixigo

<keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ZoomCar">Zoomcar</keyword>, India’s first 100% self-drive car rental company, announced the launch of Hop, the one-way intercity self-drive service. With this one-way segment a customer can drive from point A to point B. This means customers can pick up a car from Zoomcar location from one city and drop it off to another city at a Zoomcar location. The launch of one-way intercity launch adds flexibility and options to people’s travel plans. Zoomcar is bringing new innovations to the Hop service which will be available across 24 cities including intra-state and eventually inter-state routes as well. The 24 city routes are Bangalore – Mysore, Bangalore – Mangalore, Mangalore – Mysore, Bombay – Pune, Ahmedabad – Surat, <keyword id="6354925" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kolkata">Kolkata</keyword> – Siliguri, Chennai – Coimbatore, Vijayawada – Vizag. Zoomcar caters to an audience where travelers are seeking self-drive purpose for both business and leisure purpose. “With the launch of our pathbreaking one way, inter-city self-drive rental product, Hop, we're offering a whole new level of convenience for our 20 lacs+ Zoomcar customer base. After careful study and countless deliberations with customers, we have designed a product offering that caters to a wide range of point to point, intercity self-drive use cases. We anticipate strong demand for Hop from both business and leisure travelers. We look forward to pushing out to more than 30 routes later this quarter,” said Greg Moran, CEO &amp; Co-founder, Zoomcar. The procedure for booking a car will be done through the app or website. The user will be asked about their drop off city and location. Based on the provided pickup and drop off, the minimum duration is computed to cover the distance. The price of the fuel is included. The price of the trip will be decided by the hours required to cover the distance between starting point to destination with 20km/hr.

Now you can self drive a car for one way inter city travel

New Delhi, Feb 19 () Zoomcar, self-drive mobility platform, on Wednesday said it has appointed Markish Arun as its vice president of Engineering. Markish, who had worked with the likes of Goibibo and Makemytrip as senior director of Engineering leading supply-side engineering and product initiatives will be responsible for all engineering initiatives in his new role, Zoomcar said in a statement. Commenting on the appointment, Zoomcar CEO and Co-Founder Greg Moran said, "Cutting edge technology has always been our priority and Markish's appointment will further our already dominant lead on the technical platform side as we are doubling down on investing for 100,000-plus cars on the platform." He brings a wealth of relevant industry knowledge to the company that is highly valued, Moran added. Markish had co-founded Magicrooms.in, a real-time inventory distribution engine for hotels in India and sold to Yatra.com in 2011. He also co-founded Koruko.com in 2013, an IoT-based retail engagement platform, which was later pivoted as Trip38.com, Zoomcar said. RKL SHWSHW

Zoomcar appoints Markish Arun as vice president, Engineering

<ul><li>Spotify capitalised on Truecaller’s brand solutions to maximize the brand visibility and saw 30% more clicks in a single day for its launch campaign. </li><li>Zoomcar managed to achieve over 400 million impressions for its brand campaign after using Truecaller</li><li>India is the largest revenue contributor for Truecaller globally</li></ul>When Swedish mobile app Truecaller started buying and selling ad inventories programmatically in 2017, a lot of people were not aware of its potential. Fast forward to now, Truecaller’s programmatic platform has helped brands like Spotify and Zoomcar to capitalize on the platform’s 100 million daily active premium smartphone users in India, to send out their communications and see close to 500 million impressions in one day for their campaigns. Spotify launched in India in February this year and during the launch phase, the music streaming app capitalised on Truecaller’s brand solutions to maximize the brand visibility and saw 30% more clicks in a single day. By using Truecaller’s contextual capabilities, Spotify’s launch campaign, ‘There’s A Playlist For That’ ended up delivering over 500 million impressions in a single day. Similarly, Zoomcar again used Truecaller to reach out to its users across major cities, to promote its three-day offer of 100% off on bookings made towards the end of May, earlier this year. The numbers from both the campaigns are impressive. Both Spotify and Zoomcar saw 500 million and 400 million impressions respectively for their campaigns. We recently spoke to Tejinder Gill, Vice President Global Sales, Truecaller to understand how the programmatic ecosystem has evolved in the country in the past few years. Sharing his views on some of the biggest advantages of using programmatic advertising, Gill said, “When you look at it from a publisher’s lens, programmatic has helped us get better yield. We get more money for our inventory and everything can be optimized automatically at the back-end. We’ve now also started offering guaranteed deals called ‘Programmatic Guaranteed’ through which we can sell all our premium inventories like Roadblocks programmatically.” Gill further shares that moving to programmatic has also helped in bringing about a lot of operational efficiencies. “We no longer need a big team. Currently, three people are managing ad operations and programmatic for Truecaller globally, which includes large markets like India, Middle East and Africa. On an average, these people manage over 100 campaigns a month, which means three campaigns per day, which is a pretty high volume,” adds Gill. It has also helped in regularizing payment cycles, he shares. Gill believes programmatic is very helpful for marketers too, who now know exactly where their campaigns are running, which has given them a lot of confidence and control over their campaigns. “They are also getting better insights and are able to optimize their campaigns. They know how frequently we are reaching out to consumers and what geographies they are from,” he explains. The fact that the pricing is transparent has also helped win over a lot of clients, shares Gill. Speaking about how Truecaller helped them reach their target audience and drive effectiveness, Varun Jha, Chief Marketing Officer, Zoomcar, said, “Through Truecaller, we managed to achieve over 400 million impressions for our brand campaign. By tapping such a large quality audience through Truecaller, we were able to generate user interest that led to direct conversions during our campaign. Having witnessed such exceptional metrics, we would surely partner with Truecaller in the future for our brand promotion.” Sharing her experience, Neha Ahuja, Head of Marketing - India, Spotify said, “Being recent entrants to the Indian music streaming landscape, collaborating with fellow Swedish app Truecaller truly accelerated our launch campaign in India. It helped us gain scale and connect with potential 1.3M users who clicked on our ads through Truecaller.” Gill also feels that programmatic has evolved a lot in the last few years. He shares that close to 70% of marketers are today choosing to transact programmatically. Moreover, during the first phase, only display ads were available programmatically. However, today, YouTube mastheads, and inventory on Facebook and Google can be bought programmatically, which is leading to the entire ecosystem moving towards programmatic. So how important is India for Truecaller in the global scheme of things? ‘Very’, says Gill who shares that India is the largest market for Truecaller globally. “India is far ahead of the curve in terms of programmatic when compared to a lot of other markets like MENA and Africa. We are also the largest revenue contributors and will continue to grow as we scale up,” he adds.

How Truecaller Helped Spotify and Zoomcar Reach 500 Million Impressions in a Day

The cost of road accidents to India’s economy is reckoned at around 3% of GDP, with 1,41,526 persons killed in 2014, as per NCRB 2015 report. 
 In view of this challenge, <keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ZoomCar">Zoomcar</keyword>, India’s first self-drive car rental company, has signed a joint agreement with <keyword id="6437381" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICICI-Lombard">ICICI Lombard</keyword> to make driving more secure and safe in India. 
 
What this will basically do is use safety control and warning systems using monocular video processing algorithms running on a system-on-a-chip architecture (“EyeQ”) computing platform. 
 
Mobileye ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) is designed to prevent road accidents that occur primarily due to driver inattention. 
The system provides three primary warning types: lane departure, headway monitoring, and forward collision warning. The technology is based on a small camera located on the inside of the front windshield using image processing that provides warnings in dangerous situations. 
 Mobileye has been installed by Zoomcar in the first 40 <keyword id="45224" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mahindra">Mahindra</keyword> and Ford vehicles starting with the capital, New Delhi, followed by other metro cities in India. 
 
How it works 
 
A speeding alert system enabled via an in-car ‘smart device’ helps the company monitor the speed of its vehicles in real-time and penalise over-speeding customers. With the recent advent of novel Bluetooth based hardware tied to the OBD (on-board diagnostics) port, Zoomcar actually monitors the driver performance by assessing braking, steering, and fuel efficiency. 
 
This new platform also provides feedback on in-trip fuel efficiency, thereby helping to ensure that the driver can save significant money on fuel (the largest variable cost on any trip). 
 
Overall, this deep learning system undoubtedly makes the self-drive industry far safer than other technology powered transportation solutions like on-demand taxis and buses.

Zoomcar is now using this AI tech to make driving safer on Indian roads

<ul><li>Ola launched <keyword id="2761554" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="OLA-DRIVE">Ola Drive</keyword>, its self-drive car sharing service.</li><li>Ola Drive will initially be available in Bengaluru.</li><li>It is also offering short-term rentals like for two hours for a deposit of ₹ 2,000.</li></ul>Ola has launched its self-drive car sharing service called Ola Drive. The service will be available in Bengaluru initially but will be expanded to Hyderabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi soon after. In March, Ola <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/ola-will-race-zoomcar-in-self-drive-car-rentals-with-a-500-million-bet/articleshow/68614269.cms">confirmed</a> the launch of its self drive service to Business Insider. It kickstarted this offering by pumping in $500 million, a source had then told Business Insider. “India’s car-sharing market has immense potential and opportunity, which is yet to see a large-scale investment in technology and operations to make the model viable. Our expertise in serving millions of customers through a large fleet of vehicles across 250 plus cities has been instrumental in making ride-hailing a norm in India. Ola Drive has been built on the same DNA and will play a transformative role in defining India’s car-sharing market in the next decade,” Arun Srinivas, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Ola, said. Now, Ola claims that its self drive service will be 30% cheaper than its competitors in the market like <keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="zoomcar">Zoomcar</keyword>. It is also offering short-term rentals like for two hours for a deposit of ₹ 2,000. It will also allow users to design their own package – from number of kilometres to hours of rental. The self-drive car rental service will put Ola in direct competition with Zoomcar and Drivezy, while pushing forward Ola’s existing fleet business. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/ola-will-race-zoomcar-in-self-drive-car-rentals-with-a-500-million-bet/articleshow/68614269.cms">Ola will race Zoomcar in self-drive car rentals with a $500 million bet</a>

Ola’s new self-driving service is priced 30% lower than competitors

After the <keyword id="6360789" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Modi-Government">Modi government</keyword> has almost made Aadhaar mandatory in many transactions, companies like <keyword id="18635" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> and Paytm are also asking customers to upload their 12-digit unique identity number if they want to avail their services. If a customer is unable to share a government certified identification proof, Amazon will continue to process the request based on other details shared by the customer. In case a customer does not have an Aadhaar card, a PAN Card or a passport proof would also suffice. Contrary to this, <keyword id="6368965" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ZoomCar">Zoomcar</keyword> has made Aadhaar mandatory. Without this <keyword id="434813" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Identity-proof">identity proof</keyword>, users in north India and Vijayawada won't be able to book a vehicle. The company, founded in 2013, operates in 15 cities. It started insisting on Aadhaar in June and will extend it to users across the country in a month. "Aadhaar has the best API integration, the latest documents are getting connected with bank accounts. If you have an Aadhaar card, you have the KYC (know your customer) sorted," said a Zoomcar spokesperson. Currently, Aadhaar is mandatory for consumers to get government subsidies, operate a bank account, and get a phone connection. People are required to link their Aadhaar number to existing bank accounts by the end of the year.

Why private companies are now asking customers for their Aadhaar number

The Indian Car Rental Industry has grown leaps and bounds over the years due to a rising demand for better and sustainable modes of transportation among its growing urban population. Driven by a hunger to experience vast avenues, coupled with an innate fear of missing out on certain opportunities, the millennial youth of India is gradually becoming the force that is fueling the growth of the car rental industry. According to a report by <keyword id="1979806" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="ken-research">Ken Research</keyword> – a global aggregator &amp; publisher of Market intelligence research reports, the Indian car rental market’s revenue is projected to grow at a considerable Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 35 per cent. Furthermore, this sector is expected to be worth more than INR 800 billion by 2019, which is quite an encouraging aspect for market players in this segment. And that’s where self-drive car rental market is emerging. India’s position in the self-drive car market <keyword id="1890232" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="greg-moran">Greg Moran</keyword>, CEO &amp; Co-founder, <keyword id="6368965" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="zoomcar">Zoomcar</keyword> told <keyword id="824043" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Business-Insider">Business Insider</keyword>, “The self-drive car rental market in the emerging countries is mainly driven by factors such as government restrictions regarding private car ownerships and increased access to technological advancements like the Internet and smartphones. The Chinese self-drive car rental market is the largest among the three emerging economies and contributed to the maximum share in the overall market. Changes affecting the Chinese self-drive car rental market will have a strong impact on the overall self-drive car rental market of the emerging countries. However, the self-drive car rental market in India will account for the highest growth compared with the Chinese and Brazilian self-drive car rental markets in the coming years. The market is at its nascent stage and offers immense growth opportunities for the market players.” Roads in developed countries now have many partially automated vehicles, and highly automated vehicles will soon join them. Even Indian roads could see vehicles with some partial automation, but anything more would need to wait for better infrastructure and regulation. Low vehicle ownership buoying the growth The gap between rich and poor in India is relatively large, the average annual income of Indians is 3500 US dollars, the capital of Delhi has 25.7 million people, young people accounted for almost half. "Rent a car usually uses a pricing strategy - for example, in Delhi, the cost of renting a car is $ 80, a car can be used for 4 to 5 people, a person costs about $ 12. India has a low rate of vehicle ownership, and in many large cities, the vehicle ownership rate of 10%, which determines the development of automotive-related shared economic market in India has great potential. And India's economy and population are growing, population density, large population density of the city is bigger than that of China. Various needs contributed to the shaping of the shared economic model in India. “India's law on shared car rental is very strict, the bank loan process is also slow, which delayed the supply of vehicles, but the market demand is very large, resulting in supply imbalance. Our platform ZAP allows the user to buy the car, rented out on the Zoomcar platform, which can cover the cost of buying a car." This model can cover 70% to 80% of the cost of buying a car, Zoomcar hope that this model will be extended to India's 30 cities,” said <keyword id="1212867" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="moran">Moran</keyword>. Car sales are going up But Moran thinks that won’t be any hurdle. “India is a more traditional country, the Indian family concept is very strong, in the choice of car rental, they will bring their families or colleagues, which virtually in the car rental industry to bring users. In India, many people do not have cars, they do not want to spend money to buy a car, but there is short-term travel, travel needs, these needs determine the car company's presence. India has a low rate of vehicle ownership, and in many large cities, the vehicle ownership rate of 10%, which determines the development of automotive-related shared economic market in India has great potential. And India's economy and population are growing, population density, large the population density of the city is bigger than that of China. Various needs contributed to the shaping of the shared economic model in India,” said Moran. India in the future may have a lot of shared car rental platform, as in China shared bicycle competition, India will have two to three shared car rental platform competitions, but in the end, will only left dominance. In the shared car rental industry, India has the potential to reach 25% of China's market share, but due to complex laws, India's share of the economic market is difficult to match the developed market. Future Moran is optimistic that the India Self Drive Car Rental market has witnessed a growth in recent years because rising demand for long distant and weekend trips fuelled by introduction of new technologies, increasing fleet size, rising geographical penetration and entry of new players. The surge in growth is majorly originated from growth in weekend trips. The growth in Self-drive car rental has been largely led by the various factors such as security mechanisms adopted, affordable pricing packages, increasing demand and entry of new player in market. Favourable consumer dynamics such as rising number of digitally active users along with increase in personal disposable income would rise in the market in upcoming future. Increasing penetration by self-drive car rental players in different geographies of the country is anticipated to give a boost to India Self Drive Car Rental Market. Lack of effective government regulations and industrial standards along with enhancing competition are few of the major challenges which will affect the growth of this industry in the future.

Self-drive car in India will supersede high volume sales of cars. Here's how

Startups are no more interested in wooing investors. They are now applying a new method to get funds. They are borrowing money to meet working capital needs as their eye-popping valuations are finally beginning to taper off. 
 
This is a radical departure from just a few months ago when they collected money by selling stakes to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=venture+capital+">venture capital</a> firms, hedge funds and deep-pocketed businessmen all vying for a piece of India's rapidly growing e-Commerce market. 
 Take an example of <keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="ZoomCar">Zoomcar</keyword>, a car rental company. It has borrowed Rs 12 crore in two tranches from <keyword id="2809652" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="InnoVen-Capital">Innoven Capital</keyword>, a debt venture fund, to meet its working capital needs rather than approaching investors again. It had raised equity capital worth $11 million from <keyword id="122716" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Sequoia-Capital">Sequoia Capital</keyword> and a few other investors last year. 
 
Debt venture funds like Innoven raise money from institutional investors and lend to startups. Innoven has loaned money to established enterprises such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>, Myntra, Practo, Freecharge, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startups+">Yatra.com</a> and Firstcry recently. 
 
Besides Zoomcar, other startups such as mobile wallet MobiKwik, memorabilia e-retailer Collectabillia, edu-tech firm Embibe, transportation venture MoveInSync, food chain Faasos and app maker AppsDaily, among others, have shifted to debt funding since April this year. 
 While entrepreneurs see venture debt as an additional source of capital, the shift points to a growing wariness among investors about startup valuations. Many investors have begun to question the sustainability of the business model of e-Commerce companies, which is centred on the idea of gaining <keyword id="34527" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="market-share">market share</keyword> at any cost often with scant regard to the possibility of making real profits. 
 "There's definitely a higher intensity of discussion around valuation these days as the fund-raising environment is showing signs of cooling off," said Vinod Murali, managing director, InnoVen Capital. Startups have taken note. Rahul Khanna, managing director, <keyword id="2694863" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Trifecta-Capital">Trifecta Capital</keyword>, said people are expecting a correction in the valuation of startups and promoters, therefore, want to retain more capital now. "It's like buying insurance; if the next round of funding is delayed, they'll still have enough money to run the company," he said. 
 
Trifecta is the latest venture debt fund to join the likes of Innoven, Intellegrow and Capital Float, among other unorganised NBFCs, which are complementing the shift in strategy of startups. 
 
Trifecta said it has a pipeline of deals with more than 60 companies. Innoven said it has funded more than Rs 760 crore in India through 90 deals across 60 companies. 
 
This new strategy is enticing for startups. A good capital mix gives <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=entrepreneurs+">entrepreneurs</a> more time to grow the business — and avoid the rat race — while a lower equity dilution allows them to retain control of their companies. 
 
In recent years, startups have raised debt of over Rs 1,500 crore, according to fund managers. There is actually a pent-up demand for debt funding, according to Khanna. 
 
Venture debt funds, which lend money to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=startups+">startups</a> at rates of 15-21% a year, are not strictly debt funds. They are structured in a way to allow the lender a minor equity participation as well. While lending money to startups, most venture debt funds demand an equity kicker, usually 1-2% of the loan. An equity kicker allows the fund to partake future profits, a right that must be exercised either during the life of the fund or the tenure of loan. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Startups, tired of  chasing angel investors, are now simply borrowing money to make ends meet

Have you ever played Santa to an underprivileged kid not for charity, but to see the smile hidden behind the shabby face? Imagine the world doing it at a greater length. This Christmas, start-ups went beyond promoting their business products to playing Santa to hundreds of children, just to see that sparkling smile.
 

	This trend came to the forefront when the country was struck by one of its most devastating disaster, the Chennai floods. From IT companies to telecon to start-ups, everybody came to the rescue of the victims. Startups are increasingly partnering with non-governmental organisations to bridge the gap between non-profit and for-profit enterprises.
 “We do a lot for the corporate. Why not extend the services to the development of those who are neglected and deprived of opportunities?” said Siddharth Gupta, cofounder of <keyword id="2913717" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Treebo">Treebo</keyword> Hotels. 

	Here’s a list for the government and corporate to look up to as an example of how to serve a nation and make it a developed country, in true sense.
 

	Tech-enabled budget hotel start-up, Treebo partnered with a host of NGOs and organised an educational tour for 33 underprivileged children in Bangalore. Their two day stay at a hotel which was accompanied by tours around the city museums and monuments is a one of its kind initiative, named ‘Junior checks-in’.
 

	“We tied up with NGOs because we genuinely feel that travel can contribute to the growth and learning of any individual, particularly kids. We felt that these kids who don’t have all the privileges never get the opportunity to travel and use travel to expand their learning horizon,” said Gupta, adding that they plan to conduct such tours once every quarter.
 Treebo partnered with several NGOs engaged in welfare of underprivileged kids across the country, including <keyword id="828816" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Salaam">Salaam</keyword> Baalak Trust, Divya Deepa Charitable Trust, IDEA Foundation, and CHETNA. <keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ZoomCar">Zoomcar</keyword>, a self drive car rental company, partnered with Infant Jesus Charity Home, a voluntary, non- government and non- profit organization dedicated to give love and understanding to orphaned and underprivileged children. They took the children for a joy ride on the occasion of Diwali this year, 2015. Zoomcar also partnered with Janagraha and launched #mycleanbangalore encouraging its customers to take a resolution to keep the city clean and green. 

	There are also start-ups which does the work of an NGO by being a for-profit enterprise. Shop For a Cause, online shopping portal tied up with NGOs that promote handicrafts made by tribal women and are promoting them in their online shopping site.
 Talking about Chennai floods, the contribution of the start-ups cannot be mentioned enough. Apart from food delivery and mobile payment start-ups, technology start-ups too came forward to enable technology based relief operations which turned out to create a huge difference. One such Delhi-based data startup <keyword id="2591749" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SocialCops">Socialcops</keyword> is working with NGO Bhumi with relief operations by providing better data, technology and efficiency in identifying the worst hit areas. There are also start-ups that work closely with slums. Through a tie-up with NGO Diwya, which works with kids in Dharavi, Mumbai's biggest slum, <keyword id="2556777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Timesaverz">Timesaverz</keyword>, on demand home services marketplace, is distributing anything its customers want to give away to these needy children. 

	These start-ups have started a trend which is afst catching up in the startup boom in India. Hope this catches up with every corporates and government of the country too.

	 
	 
	(Image credits: flickr/Damon Lynch)

Startups playing Santa: Lessons to be learned by all!

<ul><li>Ola is piloting its self-driving car rental service in India. </li><li>Sources suggest that Ola will be pumping in $500 million into the segment. </li><li>Earlier in March, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation made their biggest combined investment to date of $300 million into Ola. </li></ul>Indian ride-hailing startup Ola is rapidly moving beyond its core service of being a cab aggregator. After making inroads into e-mobility, it is now launching a self-drive service. Ola is set to start its self-drive service by pumping in $500 million, a source told Business Insider. Confirming the news, an Ola spokesperson told Business Insider, “Basis market feedback, we are piloting our Ola Self-Drive offering in various formats like rentals, subscription and corporate leasing in select cities in the coming weeks. This space is currently underserved and there exists a tremendous opportunity to build a superior experience through an integrated mobility platform like Ola.” The self-drive car rental service will put Ola in direct competition with Zoomcar and Drivezy, while pushing forward Ola’s existing fleet business. Ola Fleet Technologies Pvt Ltd also looks into asset optimization and management. Ola is planning to take this launch to its top seven cities – Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata – with over 10,000 vehicles including luxury sedans and SUVs under the Ola Self-drive category. The company is taking this self-drive category to Ola’s 150 million+ consumers in the country will make it the largest self drive business in India, the source added. By understanding consumer demand, Ola will look at introducing more car types into the self-drive category. They are also looking at growing the business through a subscription model for consumers and reaching out to corporates. Earlier this month, Hyundai Motor Group and Ola announced a strategic partnership under which Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation made their biggest combined investment to date of $300 million. “As part of the strategic collaboration, the companies have agreed to co-create solutions to operate and manage fleet vehicles, marking the Group’s first foray into the industry, as they expand operations from automobile manufacturing and sales to total fleet solutions,” Ola had said in an official statement. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/ola-takes-on-mahindra-glyd-with-fresh-funds-wheres-uber/articleshow/68214440.cms">Ola gets fresh funds to take on Mahindra’s Glyd – where’s Uber?</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/after-minting-1-billion-from-flipkart-sale-sachin-bansal-is-now-betting-big-on-ola/articleshow/67526383.cms">Watch out Uber. Sachin Bansal gets Ola share after selling Flipkart</a>

Ola will race Zoomcar in self-drive car rentals with a $500 million bet

PrimeMover Mobility Technologies, a Gurugram based startup, which owns and operates self-drive car rental platform <keyword id="3018623" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Revv">Revv</keyword>, has raised $9 million in equity and debt financing. 
 
According to an official statement released by the company, the proceeds from Series A round will be used for launching its services in fresh markets , develop new products, and to come up with proprietary technology to enhance customer experience. 
 The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but it follows the Rs 160 crore raised by bigger rival <keyword id="6368965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ZoomCar">Zoomcar</keyword> in a round led by Ford Smart Mobility, a subsidiary of <keyword id="64455" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ford-Motor-Company">Ford Motor Company</keyword>, earlier in August. 
 "The number of people giving up traditional assownership is set to grow exponentially. The rise of taxi-hailing apps has been an important market-creator, weaning people away from traditional car ownership. The key would be to address the highly varied needs of a shared-mobility user, through a suite of products tailored for each need," <keyword id="358005" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anupam-Agarwal">Anupam Agarwal</keyword>, co-founder, Revv said in a statement. 
 
According to the press release, a major amount used for developing technological capabilities on two-sided sharing platforms, predictive inventory management, dynamic pricing and driver behaviour monitoring. 
 The funding round is a mix of equity and debt funding, the latter from financing partners such as Mahindra &amp; Mahindra Financial Services; and vehicle leasing from <keyword id="656315" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="LeasePlan-India">LeasePlan India</keyword>. 
 "We believe that Revv's approach to creating use-case based products will meet customers' needs without compromising the convenience and flexibility of owning the vehicle, while allowing for better utilization of assets on the supply side," said <keyword id="2863114" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pranav-Parikh">Pranav Parikh</keyword>, managing partner, Edelweiss <keyword id="34499" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="private-equity">Private Equity</keyword>. 
 Revv is currently present in four cities across the country - Delhi NCR, <keyword id="6354321" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword>, Hyderabad and Chandigarh.

Self-drive car rental startup Revv raises $9 million

New Delhi, Apr 14 () Online used car marketplace CARS24 on Tuesday said it has introduced a voluntary pay cut for employees that will be invested as ESOPs of the company.The company, whose founders have decided to forego their salaries for the next six months amid the COVID-19 crisis, said the employees will get ESOPs worth two times the amount they invest.These 2X ESOPs will be allotted right away, CARS24 said in a statement."...all the four co-founders of the company will forgo 100 per cent salary due to the ongoing COVID 19 crisis for the next six months. The underlying idea behind the decision was to keep the financial wheel running and ensure that the salaries of their employees are released on time," it added.A CARS24's spokesperson said the company will keep evaluating the situation continuously and take all the essential measures while keeping the interest of employees in mind."We are optimistic and believe that we will emerge stronger once the situation is better," the spokesperson added.The nationwide lockdown, which has now been extended to May 3, has disrupted businesses, especially startups. Many startups are facing financial stress given the paucity of business, and some of them are resorting to measures like salary cuts and even layoffs to weather the ongoing turbulence.Recently, self-drive mobility platform Zoomcar had said it has decided to defer salaries of senior leaders and CEO Greg Moran as part of its efforts to tide over the "difficult time" on account of the coronavirus crisis. SR BALBAL

You Searched For "ZoomCar" and got 14 results

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