Savaari Car Rentals seek third round of funding

Bangalore-based Savaari Car Rentals is in talks to raise its third round of funds by January.

The funds, according to Gaurav Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, will be used for ramping up Savaari’s operations and consolidating presence in existing cities.

Savaari has so far raised $1 million (around ₹6 crore) from Inventus Capital in March 2012 and an undisclosed amount from Intel Capital in October last year.

“The amount of our third tranche will be significantly higher than the earlier ones,” he told

BusinessLine without disclosing the amount or the PE funds he was in talks with.

Founded in 2006, Savaari operates in the private taxi aggregator space, competing with Ola Cabs, Meru Cabs and TaxiforSure. The company, currently, has operations in 60 cities.

Consolidation

According to Aggarwal, the company will consolidate its presence in the taxi booking space and grow “deeper” into existing cities. As a part of this consolidation, it has rolled out a new model whereby the company goes for direct tie-ups with drivers. This eliminates the vendors and helps Savaari maintain a “more dynamic fleet”, apart from direct control.

So far, the new model has been introduced across cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. On an average, it looks to add between 500 and 1,000 vehicles a month to its fleet over the next few quarters.

Profitability

Although Savaari had broken even by 2012, the expansion into new areas and the subsequent increase in costs saw it slip.

The company, Aggarwal said, is witnessing a 350 to 400 per cent growth and hopes to break even in three years.