Bengaluru | 23rd January 2020: Bounce, India’s first and world’s fastest growing shared mobility player today confirmed its Series D funding of USD 105 million. Accel, a leading venture capital firm, and B Capital Group, a global technology fund led the investment. Existing investors, Accel Partners India, Chiratae Ventures, Falcon Edge, Maverick Ventures, Omidyar Network India, Qualcomm Ventures and Sequoia Capital India also participated in the round. Kabir Narang, General Partner and Co-Head of Asia at B Capital Group, will be joining the Bounce board.
The fresh funding, which takes the total amount raised to over USD 194 MN, will fuel a deeper Electric Vehicle (EV) integration, platform play and help drive profitability. Accelerating the adoption of EVs will not only help in pushing for sustainable mobility, but will also help Bounce to reduce the cost per km. While Bounce finances all its bikes through debt, there is tremendous investments needed to build the necessary EV tech and enable the EV ecosystem. The company also aims for a platform play to make its offerings form agnostic, thus being able to tailor its mobility solution to the city/town it forays into. The funds will also be deployed towards multi-city expansion, enhancing tech infrastructure, talent acquisition etc.
Bounce currently operates its dockless scooters in Bangalore and Hyderabad with a fleet of 13000 and 2000 vehicles respectively. It’s docked scooter rental service is available to commuters in over 35 cities. At more than 120,000 rides per day, Bounce has clocked over 16 MN rides till date, becoming one of the fastest growing shared mobility players in the world. Utility of assets is also one of the highest as each Bounce bike does over 9 rides a day.
The above numbers become very significant when one considers the fact that Bounce has achieved this in a single city, Bangalore and in just over a year. The biggest impact of Bounce, however, is in enabling the usage of MRT, with around 42% of its rides starting or ending at a public transport hub. It outlines the potential for growth and scope for impact, as more Indian cities adopt shared mobility and thereby increase usage of public transport and re-cluttering the city roads.
Quotes:
Vivekananda H.R – CEO & Co-founder of Bounce
“Our growth to 120,000 rides a day, in a little over a year and largely in one city, underlines that the future belongs to shared mobility. Shared mobility not only reduces the traffic but also frees up parking spaces, which in Indian cities is anywhere between 12-15% of the total usable real estate. However, the main vision of Bounce is to democratize mobility and thus make a significant socio-economic impact. This fresh funding will help us towards this vision. It will also enable us to build a mobility platform that will help bringing in different forms of mobility solutions, that are hyper-suited to the needs of cities and towns we plan to expand into, over the next few months.”
Anand Daniel – Partner at Accel
“Bounce has been a pioneer in the shared mobility sector and is led by a visionary team of Vivek, Anil and Varun. The brand identifies one of the key gaps in the mobility sector and has managed to provide a convenient and cost-efficient solution with their tech capabilities. The innovations around the keyless mechanism of using a scooter coupled with other IOT modifications, make Bounce very unique. We are excited to continue partnering with the Bounce team.”
Kabir Narang – General Partner and Co-Head of Asia at B Capital Group
“B Capital Group has been impressed by the execution capabilities of the Bounce team. Bounce achieved over 16 million rides in 2019 and has the potential to reach over 200 million customers across the country with a highly engaged community of riders. With its dockless fleet of scooters, Bounce is a short-distance mobility solution that is affordable and efficient. Over 40% of Bounce rides start or end at metro stations which also complements the public transportation infrastructure and solves the last mile connectivity. In addition, a Bounce bike takes over six bikes off the roads, helping reduce congestion and pollution from cities,” said Kabir Narang, General Partner and Co-Head of Asia at B Capital Group.”
