Self-driving mobility platform Zoomcar has raised $40 million in Series C funding from a group of investors led by Mahindra & Mahindra.
Zoomcar plans to use the capital to accelerate its marketplace supply growth, improving its lead within applied IoT technologies, and expanding into additional mobility categories across India, according to a statement.
“Our collaboration with Mahindra dates back to 2013 when we first kicked off in Bangalore,” said Greg Moran, founder of Zoomcar. “Most importantly, Mahindra shares Zoomcar’s vision for multi-modal urban mobility and we look forward to leveraging their diverse platform to help accelerate the transformation to a shared, electric mobility future for India.”
Mahindra’s investment is strategic as it is a recognised leader within the SUV and EV segments in the country and Mahindra SUVs already form a majority of Zoomcar’s fleet within that segment.
With respect to electric collaboration, Zoomcar recently launched E2O plus vehicles across Mysore, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. In coming months, Zoomcar expects to add another 500 plus Mahindra E2Os across more than 20 cities pan-India.
Zoomcar and Mahindra expect to closely collaborate on electric charging infrastructure to further expand the use of EVs.
The company claims to have witnessed robust growth with its ZAP marketplace in 2017 as these vehicles now account for more than 25 per cent of its 3,000-plus fleet.
Bicycle service
Besides, in October 2017, Zoomcar launched PEDL, India’s first dockless cycle sharing service. The service currently operates across 10 cities with a fleet of more than 3,000 cycles.
The service currently completes nearly 15,000 rides per day and partners with leading universities, IT parks, residential societies, municipal corporations, and Smart City groups. Zoomcar expects this fresh funding to help the company hit over 15,000 subscriber vehicles on the platform before the end of 2018.